Well, It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written here – and with very good reason! 

I’m the proud daddy of a bouncing baby boy!

He was born in the beginning of June and he’s kept me very busy!  I’ve also been extra busy at work.  We’re architecting a very large cloud type service and I’ve been visiting many of our sites and attending a ridiculous amount of training.

Back to what’s important though is the fact that I have a new baby boy and he has been quite an adventure for me.  Besides the fact that my wife nearly delivered him in the truck, there has never been a dull moment since his birth. 

One particularly amusing story takes place in his first couple of days on the outside.  One morning I decided to help my wife out by taking the baby downstairs and keeping him happy so that she could get some sleep.  To this point I had changed a couple of diapers, but they were all just pee diapers. 

While we were playing on the couch, I was having trouble settling him, so I thought he might need a diaper change.  I took him upstairs and stripped him down to the diaper.  Then I compared with a fresh diaper to see if the indicator stripe was the same colour – it wasn’t!  That meant I was right and he did have a wet diaper.

So there he is on the change table.  As I open the diaper up, I discover what I can only describe as a poo explosion.  There was so much for such a little guy!  I panicked and ran into our bedroom shouting to my wife:

“Get up! Get up!  We have a poo emergency!”

I’ve since learned how to change both types of diapers, but the story seems to stir laughter whenever I tell it!

A few weeks back we purchased a 21’ travel trailer to increase the family camping enjoyment factor.  Up until now we have been unable to use the trailer because the Colorado didn’t quite have the towing capacity.  We needed to add a seven port wiring harness, an electronic brake controller and a 900 lb weight distribution hitch.  The hitch essentially spreads the tongue weight of the trailer across a greater area and helps keep the truck level when towing.

I had to wait several weeks for the hitch to come in and finally about a two weeks ago it did.  I took the truck in and had them install the brake controller and the harness, and I took the hitch home to set up by myself.  The trailer is kinda necessary to the process, so it made sense.

It took me a couple of days to get the hitch all together and assembled with the correct parameters.  So, on Thursday of last week I decided to finalize the installation and hook up the trailer for the first time.

It seemed to go smoothly…

The truck looked to be handling the weight well and I was interested in testing the wiring harness and the brake controller.  I plugged in the trailer plug to the truck and failed to pay much attention to the popping sound I heard coming from the front of the truck.  I got into the truck and started it up.  So far, so good. 

I tapped on the brakes and the LED on the controller began to count up.  I don’t know much about controllers, but that seemed appropriate.  I tested it a second time.  That’s when I noticed a strange smell.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first, but I had definitely smelled it before. 

The sound of a child yelling caught my attention and when I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw the plume of smoke.  I immediately turned the truck off and ran back to unplug the trailer.  I climbed under the truck and checked the wiring – it was incredibly warm to the touch.  I was livid and ready to take the truck back to the installer and freak out about the wiring job.

Then it occurred to me that it might not be their fault.  I ran to the back of the trailer and checked the electrical.  It was still plugged into the 120 volt house electrical socket.  The electricity was feeding back into the 12 volt line on the truck.  Not sure why there is no fuse or breaker protecting that.  The plug was scorched a little.

I waited until it all cooled down and gave it a good once over.  I reconnected everything and tested it.  Everything seemed to be working ok.  Thankfully.   My goal is to not do that ever again.

In the last couple of weeks my kids have started to become friendly with the other kids in the neighbourhood.  We’ve lived here for about three years and in that time we managed to avoid the mobs of children that plague our streets during the summer months. Luckily, our kids attend a different school than the rest of the neighbourhood children, so they really don’t have a lot of interaction with them. 

A few weeks ago my daughters befriended the only other little girl in the neighbourhood that is their age.  She’s a good kid and I really don’t mind them playing with her.  However she is kinda like the queen bee.  As soon as she shows up, the others follow.  All in all about 10 other kids will swarm in and congregate on my property. 

Now, I’m not a kid hater.  In fact, I love the kids.  Seeing how they grow and develop socially is incredibly interesting.  What I don’t love is being responsible for kids that aren’t mine.  Our place has plenty of places to get in trouble.  We have a pool, hottub, travel trailer, garage full of tools, and two fairly new and nice vehicles. 

So you can imagine my frustration levels when I see bikes getting dangerously close to the truck or the Rendezvous, or when I see kids in the garage near the power tools.  Most of the kids have listening problems and refuse to follow the rules as laid out. 

The other big pain in the rear is the fact that my own kids don’t pay attention to the fact that other kids are in my back yard playing while they are down the street with other kids. 

My wife is going to be off this summer with the new baby and the last thing she needs is the whole block here being in the way.  I’m going to put the foot down and make it clear that my home is not a local hangout spot for every kid on the street.  That way my family can enjoy their summer and our new addition.

That is the question.

I’ve been eyeing the netbooks since their debut a couple of years ago. It’s mostly the gadget factor that draws me to them.  Their compact size makes them ideal for many situations such as travel or around the house.

Until recently I couldn’t justify purchasing a netbook.  To be honest, I already have far too many computers in my house and that includes a tablet supplied by the organization I work for.  Adding another just wasn’t worth the added cost, regardless of the cool factor. 

That’s all about to change.  With a new baby on the way, my wife will be starting her maternity leave and that will require her to return corporate laptop.  Between the newborn and our older two, my wife will find herself all over the house.  Sometimes upstairs, sometimes downstairs, sometimes out by the pool.  It will be a huge benefit to her if she could have access to the internet in all of these places. 

The netbook provides a convenient and portable way to stay connected and have easy access to the interweb. 

I originally started my netbook search at Dell.ca where I was looking at the Dell Mini 9.  A friend of mine recently purchased a Mini 9 and it’s a pretty handy little device.  I did find the screen to be a little bit on the tiny side, so I switched my focus towards the 10” Dell Mini 10. 

The price of the Mini 10 was a little bit too high for me and that particular netbook has integrated memory, so it cannot be upgraded.  Within the last week, Dell started selling a new 10” model called the Mini 10v.  This netbook offers the potential of upgrading the memory with a reduced cost via the elimination of HD compatibility.  I was just about ready to buy one when I saw a new deal that seemed too good to be true. 

It’s a Lenovo S10e and it’s a very sweet looking netbook.  It has all the bells and whistles and comes with a 6 cell battery for $359.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

It would seem that life has a funny way of putting you to multiple tests at the same time.  It’s truly amazing to see the amount of stress that the human body and mind can take.  I’m not talking about the extraordinary circumstances where people show that they can be run over with a monster truck, or break a concrete block with their head – I’m talking about the compounding stresses of day to day life.

Take for example having a baby.  Having a baby is a truly wonderful and amazing event in one’s life.  Creating a life is the most miraculous thing that a human can do, but it’s not all smiles and giggles all of the time.  Hormones, emotions, worries, and opinions can play a significant role in elevating a normal situation into an all out war.  Often times, couple are really put to the test in making the relationship work while going through the motions of having a baby.

In my situation, I have an added challenge to deal with in that my career is going through a significant change.  I’ve been assigned to one of the largest projects in the organization as the Architecture Lead.  The job itself is very stressful due to the broad needs of the business clients working against the strategic goals of the organization.  Add in tight timelines, bleeding edge technologies, and an army of people who don’t agree on anything - and you have a volatile situation.

What does it all mean?  It means that I’ve been putting in 16 hour days.  Not just any 16 hours though, 16 hours that are optimally placed to have the least impact on the family.  That means going to work at 1am after sleeping for 2 hours and returning the next day at 5pm.  That way no family time is missed and the stress is generally not spread throughout the entire household.

Why would one do this?  Simple.  The end result of the hard work will allow me to move up the ladder and hopefully increase my wages – something the whole family will really benefit from. 

The cost is fairly significant up front though.  Time is obviously the biggest expense and making good use of that time is priority number one!  The second cost is the physical and emotional drain that comes with prolonged sleep deprivation.  It’s very easy to get caught up in it all and sometimes you need to take a step back and make sure you’re not overdoing it. 

As we get closer to the due date, I think it’s going to be important for me to be spending less time at work, so my goal is to get as much wrapped up in the next couple of weeks as possible so that I can be there for my wife and our existing children as we welcome the new addition to the family.

That said, I think the title says it all.  Having a baby isn’t always that easy to orchestrate with opportunities that arise at work and it’s important to weigh all of the pros and cons and prioritize effectively.  If the end result is worth the cost and the risks, then you should keep your eye on the prize and weather the storm.  It will be worth it.

I can remember being a youngster and tuning in every Sunday night to the hit television show Cops.  Back in those days I wanted to be an officer of the law and Cops offered a realistic view into that world.  For a half hour every week, I could see what it would be like to be one of the boys in blue.  Even though I eventually grew out of the phase where I wanted to be a police officer, the show never stopped grabbing my attention.

There’s just something about it.  It’s like reality TV, only real.  People today love to watch so-called reality television shows, but the vast majority of the reality is fictional.  Cops is not scripted and there are no retakes.  The situations that the officers encounter are often volatile and always unpredictable. 

The show is one of the longest running television series on TV, with over 20 seasons recorded since it’s debut on March 11, 1989.  Each 22 minute episode will usually contain three different segments where camera crews follow officers on the job as they attend to situations in their day to day calls.  There are car chases, burglaries, domestic disputes, fights, drugs, guns, knives, prostitutes and so much more!

Even though each episode is action-packed, I’m usually less impressed with the car chase scenes.  My preference is definitely to see the interactions between the cops and the criminals.  People do a lot of incredibly stupid things and the police are generally well prepared to handle any unforeseen events.  It’s always fun to see someone get tasered because they couldn’t follow simple instructions.

I really have a lot of respect for the officers that put their work under the microscope by allowing a camera crew to tag along and record every move they make.  Mistakes are bound to be made and thankfully the producers of the show don’t air that footage.  These men and women have a hard enough job and it’s not realistic to think that every situation can be dealt with by the book.  Sometimes you need to improvise and I can certainly appreciate that.  In fact, I often think that some of the criminals deserve a beat down or two.

I recently acquired a copy of some early seasons of Cops and jumping back to the early 1990s is a real eye opener to the changes to both the police procedures and the criminal element.  One thing never changes though... the cops with the biggest moustaches always get the most respect.

Ah, the reboot.  Quite possibly the single most used repair tactic since the dawn of electricity.  It might also be the most over-looked repair tactic as well.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times that someone has asked me for help with a computer problem and they look perplexed when I asked them if they had tried turning it off and on again.  Most people just don’t think of it.  I’ve certainly had my share of issues that were fixed by a reboot after some lengthy troubleshooting.

It’s such a bizarre notion,  If you turn it off, then turn it back on, the problem will fix itself.  In many cases, the explanation as to why this worked would be beyond the comprehension of my tiny brain.  It just doesn’t always add up. 

Oh well. I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Last week a couple of IT guys from my office were telling the tale of the multiple reboots.  Simply put, they had been working on some Exchange email servers and were having some problems that just wouldn’t go away.  So they did what every geek roots IT person would do 0 they rebooted.  That wouldn’t be enough though. 

You see the problem remained after the first reboot, so one of them suggested a second reboot.  Then a third and forth and so on.  This continued until reboot 14 – where by all accounts a miracle occurred.  The problem solved itself.

So the moral of the story is, always try a reboot (or two) when you find yourself with computer troubles.  Before you go calling up your favorite IT guy, see if you can fix it yourself. 

Oh, and if you don’t know how to reboot it, you have bigger fish to fry.  :)

As I sit down to write this, I am pondering the intrinsic complexities of space and time.  Time is an apparent constant where as it seems to always move along at the same measurable speed.  Makes sense, doesn’t it? 

A properly calibrated clock will continue to count the seconds, minutes and hours as they pass.  We make our way through the work day, counting down the roughly eight hours that we will spend there.   It’s always the same. 

Three hundred and sixty five days in a year, twenty four hours in a day, sixty minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute.  We manage ourselves by adhering to these schedules and rules. 

So what do I mean when I say it that time doesn’t feel constant?  Quite simply this:  as of late, I am no longer able to produce the same amount of output in a typical amount of time.  It basically feels like time has sped up and left me behind. 

Is that even possible?  The clock still says that eight hours has passed, so why haven’t I completed what I normally would have in those eight hours?  What if the clock was just a farce?  A prop to help maintain the lie?

The clock is there to convince you of your current place in the space-time continuum.  It would be quite a mind breaker to discover that a clock is simply just a counter, and that time fluctuates in speed and intensity.  Maybe time affect independent object differently.  Could time move faster for a human, while slowing down for a tree? 

Unfortunately, and ironically, I don’t have the time that it would take to prove out that theory.  I will challenge you though, think about time and what you know about it.  I know that you’ve had the experience of saying “I don’t know where the time went”.

I totally do.

Tonight I broke out some my old Lego to help my youngest daughter with a school project.  The task at hand was to build a structure.  Nothing too fancy, it’s only grade one.  On the advice on my wife, we opted to build a bridge.

We started with a helipad and runway base and worked on building a bridge that somewhat resembled an overpass.  Sifting through the vast expanse of Lego parts was mildly frustrating.  It seems as though you never find the part you are looking for, unless of course you aren’t looking for it.  Then it’s easy to find.

Watching the kids work away at finding pieces and fitting them together is rather heart-warming.  They are so creative and innovative in the way they assemble their creations.  At one point my daughter says to me “How do you do that?  How do you make things so easily?”

My response was not what she expected, but honest.  I said “when I was a kid, about your age, my favorite toy was Lego.  I played with Lego every day and learned to build all kinds of things.”

She seemed unimpressed with my answer. 

Regardless, we carried on and built a pretty sweet bridge with pillars and safety fences.  It wasn’t quite done, but it was after bedtime, so we decided to finish tomorrow.  After tucking the kids in, I came back downstairs and started to sift through the Lego pieces.  Oh the memories that brought back. 

Many of the pieces are from spaceship sets and include rockets, satellite dishes, computer terminals, spaceship wings and lots of other cool things.  Instinctively, I started to build a rocket ship.  I don’t know why or where the idea came from, but I just couldn’t put it down.

At the moment, the floor of the rec-room is covered in Lego.  :)

A couple of weeks ago I was picking up some items from Canadian Tire, when I noticed a clearance rack full of automotive electronics.  There were remote starters from $30 and mp3-cd players, but the biggest winner of all was a wireless backup camera that mounts to the licence plate on the back of your vehicle.  The image is then transmitted wirelessly to the receiving monitor mounted on your dash whenever your vehicle is shifted into reverse. 

At $64, I couldn’t pass it up.  Especially since we have the new trailer and this will make it much easier to back up to the hitch assembly.  I procrastinated about installing it for a couple of weeks and finally decided that yesterday would be the day.  I took the tail light assembly apart and figured out the wiring, then proceeded to connect the camera and complete the install.  I know what you’re thinking - “didn’t he say it was wireless?”

I totally did.  There are still wires required for the power, however the video itself is transmitted wirelessly.  An optional cable can be purchased to connect the camera to the monitor and bypass the wireless.  I can see the benefits to that.  The image is easily distorted as the device is required to accept any interference – including cell phones and other electronics.

So where’s the great adventure?  I thought you would never ask!

On my way to work today, I noticed the monitor would come on and flicker from time to time.  I thought that I had maybe mis-wired it, as it’s only supposed to be on when the truck is in reverse.  It wasn’t until I pulled up to swipe my card for the parking garage at my work that I realized what was happening.

As I fumbled to get my card swiped, the monitor lit up.  The image was very distorted, but I could make out what looked to be a chair in it.  Definitely not from my camera.  At lunch I was able to confirm my suspicions.  While the image at the parking garage was now gone, At a nearby stoplight I picked up a much clearer picture.  It was a live video feed from the lobby of a funeral home next to the intersection.  It would appear my monitor picks up more than it is intended to.

On the way home I found another very clear signal, but didn’t have time to stop and figure out which business it was coming from. 

The moral of this story is that wireless cameras will not protect your business.  Even a remotely intelligent criminal could easily operate this type of device and know just what you are watching.

There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by that I don’t find a new reason to hate on the McGuinty government.  From their attempt to ban handguns, to the harmonized sales tax, it seems that all they do is make living in the province less pleasant.

So what's the latest and greatest from everyone’s favorite Liberal government?  The banning of pesticides in the province of Ontario.

Commencing on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Ontario residents are no longer able to purchase pesticides for cosmetic use on lawns, gardens, school yards and parks. 

This means that we should all look forward to seeing dandelion and weed infested lawns instead of lush green grass.  We can also look forward to the high cost of chiropractic bills now that the province thinks people should be manually removing the weeds – a move that will be sure to increase back strain province wide. 

It’s good to note that the province doesn’t recognize chiropractic medicine as legitimate, so OHIP won’t cover any part of your visit.

So, get prepared to explain to your children and grandchildren about the old days when people had grass on their lawn instead of weeds.  You can tell them stories about how land values used to be much higher.  You could even take them on a road trip to another province to show them just how much a thick, green lawn improves the aesthetics (and enjoyment) of your property.

You might even consider moving there.

These greasy Liberal politicians have to go.  What ever happened to a government that represents the people.  I don’t recall voting on this issue.  I don’t remember having my say.  All I read about is how the McGuinty government is committed to protecting families and children, but there is not real evidence that supports their claims.  All they have is “medical experts” who use words like “might”, “could”, “potentially”.  

Doesn’t sound like hard evidence to me.

I’d like to assume that none of my readers enjoys a cold shower.  I think that is a reasonable assumption.  One of the great things about a shower (besides getting clean) is the relaxing effects of the warm (or hot!) water rushing against your skin.

I bet you can imagine my surprise when I jumped in the shower the other day and after a couple of minutes, the water became pretty much lukewarm.  My first thought was that one or more members of my household may have already showered and used up some of the water, so I did what I would normally do and attempted to increase the flow from the hot water side.

That really didn’t help much though, it was already at max.

After finishing my shower, I went downstairs and asked my wife if anyone else had showered.  She indicated that they had, but it had been while before I went in, so the hot water should have been replenished.  At this point I should have been puzzled, but I started to recall that this situation had happened last year as well.

On a hunch, I went down to the hot water tank to check the temperature setting.  Low and behold, it was set to “warm” as opposed to the standard setting that is just shy of “hot”.  I adjusted it and decided it would be a good idea to tape it in place.  That way, nobody would be adjusting the temperature again.

While my first inclination is usually to ask the children who did it, this time they were spared by our feline protector.  While I have no actual proof, the hot water tank is only a couple of feet away from the cat’s litter box.  The dial is in a direct path that she would walk when exiting her litter and heading upstairs.  In true cat fashion, she loves to rub against anything and everything.  The dial on the water heater is right at her height and is easily turned – maybe too easily.

Lucky for us, this action only causes the temperature to be turned down.  Had she adjusted it on the way in, someone could have been badly injured by the extremely hot water. 

There is a part of my that wants to believe that she turned it down intentionally in an effort to help us with cutting down our energy consumption and being a greener household.

Well, this weekend was the second and final instalment of this years children's birthday parties.  Our seven year old had five of her friends over and it is incredible to witness the difference that two years makes. 

When our nine year old had her party, I though that it was a significant challenge to manage that many nine year olds.  It would be an understatement to call the seven year olds “a challenge”.

Listening skills are few and far between at that age.  My mother-in-law came by to lend a hand at the request of the birthday girl and I am glad she did.  She was able to fill in some supervisory duties as the girls split into groups for different activities.

The party started with all the little ones heading out to the hottub.  This adventure was very short-lived as the girls have a short attention span and they wanted to jump and splash and dive – all activities that are not hottub appropriate.  In comparison, this task only knocked off thirty minutes, as opposed to an hour for the nines.

I also noted previously that the nine year olds all like to talk at once.  Seven year olds all like to talk at once also, all be it they want to each talk about a different subject.  They also seem to just want to talk for the sake of talking, as they often don’t direct their vocalizations towards anyone or any group.

As an added bonus, my brother-in-law stopped by to return a cooler he had borrowed and provided me with 20 minutes of saving grace.  This seemingly innocuous event was just what I needed to ensure that my sanity was maintained.

I can’t wait to see what next year brings.  lol 

I also can’t wait to see what happens when it’s six little boys running around when my son gets to be this age.

Well, it’s pretty much a done deal now.  The new travel trailer was delivered a couple of weeks ago and the old pop-up camper is now gone.  As much as it was a great project, and I learned a lot about the mechanics of a pop-up, I was happy to see it go.

The 1973 Starcraft Stardust 6 found a new home last week with a gentleman who was looking to save the cost of replacing the canvas in his 1972 pop-up.   The buyer seems like a bit of a handyman, so I hope he gets good use out of his new camping machine.

One thing I learned from that old camper was that I don’t want a pop-up.  With three kids it’s going to be enough of a challenge with the full size travel trailer.  I also really don’t want the maintenance and worry that goes with having canvas or nylon bunk ends.  I’ve seen enough ripped, rotten, mouldy, and leaking pop-ups to tell me that it’s not really my game.  Not to mention the fact that a replacement canvas will run $1000 - $2000.

I also learned from the experience that I don’t want a hybrid travel trailer.  They are the full size trailers with fold out bunk ends.  When we were shopping for a new trailer we decided to check out a few hybrids.  Even new ones have the same problems.  In one trailer, someone had put it away wet and it was covered in mould. 

No thanks.

So this week I spent some time installing the solar charger for the battery on the new camping trailer and generally organizing our gear inside of it.  Now I just need to get the towing rig on my Colorado updated.  It would seem that GM started adding the wiring for an electronic brake controller and 7-wire harness the year after my truck was made.  Imagine that. 

So that means it has to go in this week for that upgrade, as well as adding the electronic brake controller, and a 900 lbs weight distribution hitch.  This hitch will help offset the load at the tongue of the trailer and ease the stress on the rear of the truck.

After that, it’ll be time to book some camping weekends!

It was a scene I would expect to see in the days leading up to Christmas – droves of shoppers lining up for their chance to spend money at almost every retail establishment I could find.

It was the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Our new camping trailer had just been delivered and we needed to get a few small supplies (hoses and such).  So, my wife and I decided to take a trip to the local Canadian Tire to gather the aforementioned items.

As we approached the intersection just outside of the big box shopping center it was clear that something was up.  The lineup at the stop light was particularly large for an April Saturday.  My first assumption was that some Easter-based event was drawing crowds, but that idea was short-lived.  The parking lots were packed solid and shoppers were over-flowing every store in sight.

We left the Canadian Tire and hopped over to Wal-Mart where I the frenzy was even worse.  People were doing a mad dash to purchase Easter candy and cards.  It was truly impossible to tell that we are in the middle of an economic crisis.  People were spending money like it was an infectious disease that they needed to rid themselves of. 

My current theory is that the single day of closed stores on Friday somehow causes people to feel as though they need to make up for that day ten-fold.  To be honest, I didn’t see anyone buying a lot of necessities.

I may be a bit of a hypocrite since I was shopping for frivolous items, but these items were a necessity of family camping, so I feel somewhat justified.  I wasn’t there just to see how much I could spend, and then try to beat that score.

Wow.   You need to watch this video:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/10/webcam.home.invasion/index.html

The video is a chilling scene of the harsh realities of modern life.  Shot with a relatively inexpensive webcam, the film depicts to African-American males in a home invasion on a family’s home. 

After being robbed last October, the Thomas family decided to install cameras in their home as a security precaution.  The investment paid off.  The system was configured so that the homeowner could watch the camera feed over the Internet from anywhere in the world, including her workplace.

What happened next is a true testament to being in the right place at the right time.  On Wednesday Jeanne Thomas had a strange feeling that something wasn’t quite right.  Capitalizing on her hunch she loaded up the streaming video footage from her home webcam in the comfort of her office.  What she saw could not have been more horrifying.

”I'm watching my home on live monitor, and there is a black man in my house, and he is robbing it”

In no time flat eighteen officers had surrounded the house and they were able to apprehend the two suspects. 

While this is an all too chilling tale, there are lessons to be learned.  In this day and age, electronic protection is simple to use, easy to come by, and very affordable.  A cheap webcam can be enough to alert you to intruders in your home.  Throw up a couple of cameras and you can dramatically increase the security factor of your home.  It’s also good to note that motion sensors and door/window monitors are also relatively inexpensive. 

In these tough economic times, crime rates are soaring as many lose their jobs and struggle to make ends meet.  Due diligence is a necessity for protecting your loved ones and your hard earned possessions. 

You never know when you’ll become a target.

If you’re not up on the latest and greatest provincial government news, Dalton and his Liberal army are positioning the taxpayers for a wallet raping.  Following in the footsteps of some of the maritime provinces, Ontario will be accepting a new harmonized sales tax for reasons that make absolutely no sense to any educated individual.

Harmonized sales tax, or HST, is an amalgamation of the provincial and federal sales taxes (PST and GST).  This single, blended sales tax is to begin in the summer of 2010 and is currently slated for 13% (the addition of the current 8% provincial tax and the 5% federal tax).

Dalton and his band of merry underachievers have been trying to sell this new tax idea to the good people of Ontario – and it seems that the people have bought it.  They make claims about the harmonized tax being a necessary step to keep Ontario competitive.  They claim it will generate $2.4 billion by 2012.  That money is coming straight from the tax payers though.

The taxpayers will suffer.  The planned changes will also mark the taxation of items previously un-taxed.  The cost of things like gasoline, home heating fuel, rent, real estate fees, haircuts and dry cleaning will climb by 8%.  That’s a serious hit to already empty wallets in the middle of an economic recession.

The reality is that there is no big savings to the business community either.  In fact, there are huge costs.  Computer systems and registers will now have to be retrofitted to accommodate this new form of taxation.  The fact that some things will still only be subject to GST means that those systems will have to accommodate it.

The real winner here is the government.  The province will no longer be responsible for collecting said tax.  The federal government will collect the entire 13% and remit the appropriate portion back to the province.  They will be cutting huge paperwork and administrative tasks.  One can only read that as job cuts and a wage increase for the politicians at the top of this pyramid scam.  The giant savings is in no way ever going to be passed on to the tax payers.

Why can’t the provinces all be more like Alberta?  They manage to not have any provincial sales tax at all.  If it wasn’t for the lying Liberals, there would be no tax in Alberta at all because the GST would have been scrapped as promised.

Liberal lies and liberal stupidity is all you get when you vote for a liberal government.

Quick fact:  Did you know that Ontario charges a 12% tax on alcohol purchased from the Beer Store or the LCBO?

Well, we’ve made it to the third trimester and things are looking good for the little one.  He’s getting very big and his movements are quite visible now to the naked eye.  We’ve only got about ten weeks to go before we finally get to meet the little guy.  I can’t wait.

He still doesn’t have a name yet.  My wife and I are having trouble agreeing on anything (to be honest, it’s really just me).  I’m confident that he will have a name when he arrives though. 

It’s been an interesting journey through the first six months.  To start with, it’s been an emotional roller coaster.  Living with a pregnant woman certainly lives up to the stereotypes.  Mood swings can occur by the minute.  Learning how not to worsen the situation is instrumental to surviving it. 

That said, I wouldn’t trade that six months for anything.  From seeing the first peanut sized ultrasound, to feeling the baby perform his dance moves has been well worth it.  I often wonder what his personality and temperament will be like.  Will he be a calm and quite little boy, a holy terror, or somewhere in between?

I think we have everything in order for his arrival.  The nursery is all done and it’s stocked with all kinds of baby goodness.  We have a stockpile of diapers thanks to a decent sale at Costco.  So I guess all that’s left now is the waiting.  That’s always the hard part, isn’t it? 

All in all, my biggest hope is that he comes to us healthy and happy, and that we can give him everything he needs and much of what he wants.  I don’t think that’s a lot to ask for.  I also hope that things go as smoothly as possible for my wife as I can appreciate the physical and emotional toll that child birth will take on her.

I spent some time reviewing some of my previous posts and reflecting on me as an individual. Sounds pretty corny, eh?  Well I’m not all that interested in other people’s negative opinions.  It’s important that we take the time to evaluate ourselves and make sure that we are the person we truly want to be.

One thing that I have found is that my writings have grown to be more and more about different aspects of my family life.  I interpret that as a positive indicator that my priorities are aligning properly as I age.  When it’s all said and done, your family is the only people that will ever be there for you from beginning to end. 

That’s a bit of a generalization, I do realize that some people don’t have the family support that they should.  What I was really getting at is that employers and friends will come and go, but family is there forever. 

I’m very happy to see my focus shifting towards my family, that seems like a good indicator of an individual who is dedicated to his love ones and will remain committed in the years to come.  With two little ones in the house and a new one on the way, this sort of focus seems to make sense.

To quote some original Star Trek and to geekify this post, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one”.  Whereas my personal goals and aspirations once ruled my actions, I know need to think of the family unit and their greater well being.  With any luck, I can align both my own aspirations and those of the members of my household in a way that benefits everyone.

If not, we’ll figure it out.

Seriously though, take the time to understand yourself.  Take a long hard look in the mirror – Do you see the person you want to see?

Generally speaking, in my household I am usually the parent with the greater patience factor.  I seem to find it a little bit easier to give the kids the benefit of the doubt or see it from their perspective.  That said, I’m not perfect and even Superman had a weakness. 

I found my weakness.  It’s a 9 year old girls birthday party.  This event is truly one that can test my limits.  I trust that it has something to do with the fact that 9 year olds are just starting to seriously define their social structures.  You can see that they are truly starting to judge their peers and secure their place in the dominance structure.

One thing that I find incredibly challenging is the fact that six 9 year old girls (plus my 7 year old) feel the need to all talk at the same time.  As each one determines that they are not being listened to, they increase the sound of their voice to a new high in an effort to capture center stage.

Luckily, the party only lasted for two and a half hours.  More fortunately for me, my wife has the ability to deal with this type of event.  Normally she has the patience of raging inferno, but in this scenario she certainly is better equipped than I am.  Don’t get me wrong, the party was fun and the kids are a riot to watch.  In fact, I actually like all of my daughter’s friends – they are all quite well behaved and individually easy to deal with.

This year my wife decided it would be a good idea for them to all go out in the hottub.  The plan was brilliant and it was a great way to kill off an hour of the party.  Aside from the boredom of the safety rules, the children seemed to really enjoy the outdoor retreat.  Hopefully the 10 year old party will be a little calmer.

As a parent, what’s your weakness?

It’s that time of year again, where the grim reaper (aka the taxman) comes to make sure you’ve given enough of a sacrifice to the Gods of the government.  If you are fortunate enough to live in this fine country, and if you are one of the lucky few who still have a job, then you must ensure that you give the taxman enough of your hard earned money.  If you don’t, he’ll become very angry with you and he’ll likely fine you for more of your work bounty, or worse, he could throw you in jail.

One of the most difficult concepts that boggles my mind is that of the taxman.  Why is it that the government feels that they have earned the right to take 43% of my money every year?  Not just one government either.  The provincial and federal governments each take their cut.  Even though they also take their cut of every dollar I spend my money on.  We’re almost taxed to death. 

The headlines should read “Taxes Now the Number One Cause of Death in North America”. 

To be honest, I wouldn’t mind so much that they take my earnings if there was any way to see how the money was used to benefit me.  That’s not possible though.  You see, your tax dollars go into the black hole that is the government coffers and instantly becomes untraceable.  You’ll never know what your dollars are being spent on. 

It’s very probable that you are funding the programs that violate your very principles and you don’t even know it.

The hardest part of knowing that the government is stealing from me is knowing that I can’t do anything about it.  A series of genius minds built the tax system in a way that cannot be understood or comprehended.  You need a PHD just to be able to interpret all of the rules that make up the tax system. 

It saddens me to be reminded that I could find many better uses for the money the government steals from me – a reminder that comes every time I look at my little girls and think of the improvements I could make in their life if I just took home all the money I made.

It’s never easy to say goodbye to a family member, even when that family member is of the four legged persuasion.  This weekend we were faced with the challenge of putting our eleven year old Doberman to rest.  She had lived a full and complete life and fought right up to the end.

She was actually an add-on to the family for me.  My wife had her since she was a puppy, but I sort of inherited her a few years back.  About two years ago she started to develop a lump under her left front leg.  In the beginning the lump was about the size of a baseball, however in the end it was easily the size of a football, if not bigger.

When we first discovered this lump, we brought her to the vet for an assessment.  They told us that the lump was benign and we were advised against operating on it.  Due to her age, the surgery would be very risky and in all likelihood she would not survive.  They said that the growth was just a lump of fatty tissue and at the time provided minimal health risks.

So our Doberman, Mika, lived about two more years before the lump began to grow to an unmanageable size.  We observed an increase in the size as time went on, but she seemed to be managing it well.  It was only in about the last week that lump began to rapidly increase in size.  In fact, we think it may have doubled in that period. 

Mika began to show new signs of deterioration that included dementia, confusion, loss of bowel control, and difficulty walking.  It was then that my wife and I discussed our options and made the difficult decision to lay her to rest.  The night before she barked non-stop, as though to tell us that something was wrong.  She wanted our attention.  The next day she was like a puppy as we loaded her into the truck for the trip to the vet.

She knew.  She knew where we were headed and she was relieved.  She lived about two years longer than the average Doberman and now she was tired and wanting to rest. 

For the second time in as many years, we had to say goodbye to a beloved family pet and it didn’t get any easier.  Goodbye Mika, we’ll miss you.  

Last year we bought a dirt cheap 1973 popup camping trailer.  It served as a means to upgrade from the traditional tent and gave our family a sense of what camping in a trailer was all about.  The kids loved it and so did we – for the most part.

The age of the trailer presented a number of challenges from leaks to fixes, but we made do with our first trailer experience.   Along the way we did discover that there is limited space in the popup and with another little one on the way, it might be time for an upgrade.  We’ve scanned the web trying to get a feel for what we want.  At first we looked at the hybrid trailers that are half travel trailer and half popup (more like pop out since it’s just the beds).  Eventually we came to the conclusion that the hybrid requires much of the same maintenance as the pop up, so we’ve set our sites on a travel trailer.

Today we took the time to visit a few dealers and see what was available, both new and old.  We are limited in the size of the trailer because our tow vehicle is a Chevy Colorado.  It looks like a 21’ trailer is about the biggest that we can comfortably pull.  It’s still going to be a drastic upgrade over what we have now, but after checking out the space in some of the larger trailers we can definitely see the benefit in going bigger some day.

So, some of the benefits of moving up to a travel trailer will include bunk beds for the kids, a bathroom that travels with us, and no canvas that will potentially leak on us.  We’re also looking forward to having a furnace, air conditioner, and a fridge to make our travels a little more comfortable. 

Hopefully a good deal comes along sooner than later.

A couple of posts ago, I talked a bit about the fact that we have a Saturn Ion Quad Coupe that is coming up to the end of its lease.  This is really good timing because we have a new baby on the way and when he arrives our family head count will be five – one more than the Saturn has seats for.

I also talked about the fact that we’d like to get another four wheel drive vehicle, likely a bigger truck than we have now, or an SUV.  Well all of that might be changing soon.

My wife came across an advertisement on the web for a 2009 Chevy Uplander for $13,998.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it.  Now I’ve never been a fan of mini vans.  I would never disagree on how useful and practical they are, they just never felt right for me.  I might not really get a say in the matter though, because it’s my wife’s car that we are replacing, so she holds the final say.

On Saturday we took one out for a test drive and it wasn’t the worst vehicle I’ve ever been in.  The ride seemed a little stiff, just as you would expect from a low-end vehicle.  The Uplander features seven passenger seating, and all of the rear seats are removable which allows you to customize and tailor the storage area to your needs. 

This vehicle also features a 3.9L V6 engine, so power is definitely not a problem.  It also sits atop the same undercarriage as the Colorado, which provides an added benefit when driving in the winter snow as the Uplander will sit a little higher than the average car.  I suppose that the 17” standard tires won’t hurt either.

So the real question for me is, what does it mean to buy a mini van?  Maybe it means nothing at all.  Maybe it means that my life will be a little bit easier.  I could use all the help I can get in that area.

Wouldn’t it be grand to be a cat, even for just a day?  Even if you’re not a cat person, you can probably appreciate that the cat lifestyle is one to be admired.  When you think about it, what does a cat do?  

The tend to sleep a lot – wherever and whenever it pleases them.  Be it a bed, couch, chair, floor, top of a fridge, under the bed, behind some furniture.  If you can name it, a cat will probably sleep there. 

When you get hungry, you can mosey on over to your food and water and fill up.  If your owner allows you to lead a lavish lifestyle, you may even find some fresh tuna waiting for you.  I don’t personally like tuna, but I have yet to meet the cat that doesn’t.

With full belly, it’s time for another nap.

When you awaken, reenergized, you’ll inevitably find something to play with.  Maybe some fake mice, a ball, some ridiculously fun cat toy, or maybe you’ll amuse yourself with something that was never designed to be a cat toy.  I’ve seen my cat play with a twist tie, strings on a bathing suit, the curtain that covers the front window, the beans from a stuffed toy.  I’ve even seen her attack her tail like it was a completely separate entity.

Leaves blowing around outside on a windy day are also likely to peak your interest.

When all that being a cat and amusing one’s self becomes stale, it’s time to find your owner, or a suitable replacement, and get some snuggle time.   You can rub up against them and they can scratch behind your ears.  You can curl up on them and go to sleep.  And while they are scratching your neck, you can prepare to reach around and bite them for not particular or obvious reason.  Simply for the satisfaction of it.

Do you work in an office?  Does your company require you to adhere to some seemingly unnecessary policies regarding passwords?  I know my company does.

The rules we are forced to follow usually look something like this:

• User must change password every 75 days.
• User cannot reuse a password, if that password has been used as one of the last 14 passwords.
• Password must be at least 10 characters in length and must contain at least one letter, one number, and one special character.
• After three unsuccessful attempts at a password, lock account so that user must call helpdesk to unlock.

Any of that sound familiar?  Your corporate policies may differ, but the concepts will likely be the same.  The sad part is that even though these policies frustrate us to no end, the intentions behind them are in the right place.

Securing your corporate information and ensuring the integrity of company data is a necessity of any successful business.  One of the greatest risks to that security is employees.  People are generally easy to read and easily manipulated.  If the policies didn’t exist, users would make their passwords things like:

• The name of a child or pet.
• Their birthday.
• Their own name.
• A dictionary word.

All of those are easy to guess, or easy to use simple software to crack.  Without a proper management policy in place, stealing or tampering with corporate data would be like taking candy from a baby. 

So, these necessary evils ultimately protect your job by protecting the company itself.  Do yourself and your company a favour by not writing your password on a post-it-note and sticking it to your monitor.  Don’t write your passwords in a little notebook and leave it on your desk.  Doing so only undermines the very policies that protect you.  

Last summer I had the liberty of fulfilling a lifelong dream.  I bought my first truck.  The lease on my Saturn coupe was coming to an end and I decided it was time to take the plunge.  I loved my Saturn, but there had been many occasions where I was cursing the little car.  The most common reasons were usually about cargo that was too big to haul.  Not to mention the fact that 2/3 of my trunk space was filled with a 10” subwoofer and the associated enclosure.

For as long as I can remember, my dad always had a truck.  That meant that even though I always wanted a truck of my own, when I needed one I could call on him for assistance.  Sure it wasn’t always convenient, but it worked.  Well, a couple of years ago he got rid of the truck and my parents went down to a single family car.

The breaking point for me on determining to buy a truck instead of a car came last may when I was trying to buy a patio furniture set from Home Depot.  The sale was too good to pass up and I figured that the pieces would be in enough boxes that I could simply work them into the Saturn like a jigsaw puzzle.  My brilliant idea never took into account that the whole set might come in one giant box.  Thankfully, a friend with a minivan was available to assist with transportation. 

That was it though, I wasn’t going to be dependant on someone else again.

Believe it or not, I bought the first truck that I test drove.  It was a 2007 Chevy Colorado that had been used as a company demo for a couple of months.  It came fully loaded with a towing package, off-road package, box liner, tonneau cover, and so much more.  It’s four door, so it’s great for hauling the family.  It’s also a truck, so it’s great for hauling everything else.

I’ve hauled an oversized load of liquid concrete, a 1973 camping trailer, 1800 lbs of patio stones, and a pile of other heavy loads.  Dump runs are incredibly simplified with a truck as opposed to a car.  Best of all though, I never got stuck once this winter.  There is nothing that the truck can’t get through or over.  If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, I strongly recommend the truck.

The Colorado has a 5 cylinder engine, so it doesn’t consume much more fuel than a traditional 4 cylinder car.  Part of me wonders why they even still make cars, the world would be better if it were all trucks.  We’re likely to replace our other Saturn with another truck or a larger size sport utility vehicle.   

I’ve never really gotten on the energy drink bandwagon before.  I’ve heard about RedBull and Rockstar, but had generally stayed away from them.  I think I just assumed that they wouldn’t taste good since they claimed to be natural health-type products.  Ewww.

I had an opportunity to try the Rockstar drink a couple of months ago and I wasn’t impressed with it.  I didn’t feel that I got a sudden burst of energy after drinking it and by no stretch of the imagination did it taste good.  It left me feeling unimpressed to say the least.

A few weeks ago I was at the grocery store and I noticed that the Monster brand energy drinks were on sale.  I decided to pick up two different flavors and give them a try.  Little did I know the awesome power that was stored inside those tall aluminum cans.

The first time I cracked one open was a fine Monday morning at work.  I was thirsty and it was in my lunch, so I thought it would be a good time to try it out.  It tasted ok.  Not great, just ok.  The real experience came about ten minutes later when I could feel by heart attempting to beat right out of my chest at what felt like four times the normal rate.  My mind raced and I attempted to multi-task at the speed of light.

When the afternoon came, I felt like crap.  It would seem as though the crash at the end of the ride sucks.  I felt quite groggy and my brain hurt.

My next attempt at the Monster energy drink was much more calculated.  I chose a day that I was in back-to-back-to-back workshops and meetings.  I waited until all of the diplomatic type meetings were done, then slammed back the energy drink at the start of an architecture workshop.

I kid you not, I started seeing in four dimensions. 

This stuff is powerful, proceed with caution.

Well, the snow has melted, the temperature is on the rise, and the clocks have been adjusted for daylight savings time.  It’s only a matter of time now until the flowers start to bloom and spring gets into full force.  That also means that we’re soon going to be getting our camping gear out to prep it for the camping season.

I decided to start a little bit early this year.  This morning I made the trek to collect our pop-up camping trailer from it’s storage location.  The goal at the moment is to gut the trailer and replace some parts of the floor that have rotted out.  The rot isn’t extensive, but it would be better to deal with it now.

My wife has wanted to replace the dated flooring in the trailer for a while now.  To be honest, I think that the current flooring is actually a time portal to 1973.  Now she’ll have the opportunity to achieve that goal. 

I think it’s going to be a lot of work to get the floor repaired.  We have to remove all the cabinetry, seating, interior panel, and posts.  I believe it also requires the removal of the roof, although I’m looking forward to the challenge.  Once the floor is repaired and the new flooring laid down, we’ll have to decide if we are going to stick with the original cabinetry, or build something new. 

You’re probably thinking that it seems like a lot of work.  It kinda does, but I get a sense that it’s very rewarding when you see the the finished product.  I really can’t explain why, but there is something very exciting about the restoration of an old camping trailer.  I’ll be taking plenty of pictures along the way and I’ll be sure to share them and the progress.

It’s been a number of years since I was on-call as a part of my employment.  In fact, the last time was about three years ago when I worked for Accenture. 

With Accenture, I was on a rotating schedule where I was on-call for two weeks out of every six.  The positive side was that every day of being on-call was an additional $25, the downside was that we weren’t paid extra when we were actually called in.  To add insult to injury, Accenture is a global organization and our partners in Manila, Philippines were at the peak of their day when 3:00am Eastern Time came around.  They were fond of putting in trouble tickets as high-severity and making me awaken at 3am to the sound of a beeping pager.

My significant other was also unimpressed by this event and believe me, it occurred almost daily. 

Things have changed a lot since then.  I now work for a local corporation that operates in our province only.  So being on call usually doesn’t involve early morning pages from around the globe.  We also generally operate Monday – Friday, 8am – 6pm, so the majority of our business doesn’t even support after hours work.  For the few that do require 24/7, we try to ensure that things are operating nominally in an effort to prevent after-hours calls. 

While I can’t say that I am super excited about being on-call again, the extra money is always a plus and the lack of incidents keeps things nice and simple.  We are also paid for cal-outs, so I do look forward to some incidents from a money perspective.  On top of that, my team is completely mobile, so being on-call doesn’t equate to the potential of going to the office. 

If I have my gear with me, I can operate from just about anywhere that has a cellular signal.  The vast majority of our work can be managed remotely, so I see it as win-win.

If you’ve read any of my past few posts in regards to the UFC, they have been less than positive.  I’ve been generally dissatisfied with the direction that the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) has been headed.  It’s no secret that I long for the tournaments of the early 90’s, as many a UFC fan does. 

It takes a true fighter to beat four opponents in one night to be the Ultimate Fighter.

That said, UFC 96 wasn’t a complete letdown.  A good majority of the fights ended in knockouts of all kinds.  Some great punches, some great leg kicks, many a lights out.

The night was ended prematurely due to the sheer number of quick knock outs – no submissions last night.  Hosted in Columbus, Ohio, the crowd wasn’t your typical plastic and pretty Las Vegas crowd.  In fact, it appeared that many had left their trailer parks to attend the spectacle.

The pay-per-view event started out with Gray Maynard defeating Jim Miller in a unanimous three round decision fight.  Miller’s face will require plenty of healing and possibly some surgery to get it back together again.  We saw Matt Hamill (the only deaf fighter than I am aware of in the UFC) secure the knockout of the night against Mark Munoz – a devastating head kick in the first few minutes of round 1.

Matt Brown came out and put on a show as expected against Pete Sell, the prodigy of Matt Serra.  Brown did what he does and rocked Sell in the first few seconds of the round.  The ref stepped in and appeared to call the fight, however in a controversial decision he told the fighters to continue.  Sell only embarrassed himself by continuing.

Another great fight and the co-main event was heavyweights Gabriel Gonzaga and Shane Carwin in a four minute bout.  Gonzaga appeared to have the edge, however Carwin recovered from some heavy hits to knock out Gonzaga in an incredible display of power.  Carwin is the only fighter in the UFC to have hands bigger than Brock Lesner. 

Finally, the main event showed the return of Quinton Rampage Jackson as he battled for a title shot against the ugliest fighter alive, Keith Jardines.  Jardines is a great fighter and kept Rampage on his toes for all three rounds, however Rampage secured a unanimous judges decision and will be moving forward for a title fight against Rashad Evans in May.  This fight in particular was a letdown because there wasn’t a lot of action.

There were a few undercard fights aired throughout the night to fill the time gaps.  Kendall Grove defeated Canadian Jason Day – securing his job for now.  Brandon Vera chopped down Mike Patt with some vicious leg kicks to secure his job as well. 

I was amused to discover that Jackson, Jardines, and Hamill all received $60,000 bonuses for their performances last night.  Hamill for knockout of the night and the other two for fight of the night (sad really).  I remember when fighters who won the entire tournament after four fights went home with just $50,000.  Like all sports, UFC mismanages their money in order to maintain the entertainment factor.  

Last night was my father-in-law’s retirement party.  My wife and her sister-in-law orchestrated a delightful evening that started with dinner at the Keg Steakhouse and ended with UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine.  It was the dinner at the Keg that led to the topic for this post.  Well, sort of…

Let me start earlier in the day.  I had gone to the local water store to refill one of our 5 gallon water jugs that sits atop the water cooler.  It’s a fairly straight-forward adventure whereby I return the empty jug, pay $3.50 and then leave with a newly filled jug.  The young lady working behind the counter (15-18 years old) was particularly unfriendly during this visit.

She doesn’t have a lot to do when I go in.  It’s basically say hello, get my name so that my store-managed loyalty card can be updated, take my money, hand me a receipt, and wish me a good day.  She rather failed at this.  She mumbled a few things in my direction, never made eye contact once, and couldn’t be bothered to fork over a smile.  I’ll go back again, but not because of the great service that I received, but because I get a free bottle every 10 purchases.

My trip to the keg was a completely different story.  I won’t bore you with the play by play, but I will tell you that I have never been to this establishment without getting a warm and friendly encounter from the waiter or waitress.  They always smile and always engage the customer in some sort of chit chat.  There is never a question that is too dumb to answer either.  As you would expect in a restaurant, they check in often to make sure that everything is on par with your expectations.

Last night everything was not on par for me.  While the other 9 people at our table were fully satisfied, I was not.  I ordered a 14oz steak medium-rare.  In doing so, I expect that my steak will bleed when I cut into it.  The steak I received was delicious, pink inside, but over-cooked enough to make it dry.  I complained to my family about it, but in the end decided it was edible and that I would still enjoy it.  I had finished about 1/3 of it when the waitress came back to ask if things were ok.

My father-in-law pipes up about my steak.  Mildly embarrassed by his behaviour, I told her that I was unhappy with the way it was cooked, but that it was still very good and it was not a problem.   She asked me if I was sure and I confirmed.  Five minutes later, she returns with a new steak for me.  I was utterly impressed to say the least and what would have been a normal tip that I left for her ended up being significantly larger.  She didn’t have to do what she did, but it really said a lot about her and the establishment she works for. 

I’ll go back to the keg for both the food and the service, even though the prices are ridiculous.  

A few days ago I received an email at work in regards to the yearly employee engagement survey being conducted by my employer.  I imagine that the survey is typical of every other employee engagement survey, but it got me thinking.

One of the questions that was asked was whether or not I felt that my employer created a diverse workplace.  After pondering that one for some time, I clicked the box that indicated that I don’t think that they had. 

The truth is that my employer works hard to create diversity in the workplace.  We have all kinds of programs to promote diversity and we even made the Workopolis top 100 diverse employers.  So why did I lie?

I didn’t.  The question was too ambiguous for me to accept the answer they were looking for.  I can tell you that at work I see people of every race, creed, colour, gender, and any other potentially discriminating factor.  The problem is that they all have something in common that stops me from accepting them as diverse.  They are all incapable of doing their jobs.  Ok, well maybe not ALL of them, but enough of them to say that it is a great majority.

We spent so much time making sure that we had someone from every walk of life, that we stopped checking to see if they were qualified to do the job we were hiring them for.  That’s just not what diversity is supposed to be.

The pendulum always swings from one side to the other.  We went from not hiring people because of discriminating factors to only hiring them because of discriminating factors.  The pendulum needs to stop swinging and rest in the middle.

Be honest with yourself, how many people do you know that probably got their job for reasons other than their abilities?

Often times in life we don’t communicate well the things that we think and feel.  There’s a billion reasons why this happens, but the end-state is always the same.  The message never gets delivered.

I work with a guy who I haven’t really gotten along with very well on a personal level.  Really, we just don’t communicate very well.  I say things without basis or merit and he interprets them in a manner that is not intended nor accurate.  I could argue all day long the semantics of who is right and who is wrong – from both sides.  That would hardly get me anywhere though.

Nope, the truth is that we sometimes just don’t mesh well.

Normally I wouldn’t care.  In fact, I have traditionally conducted myself in a manner that requires me to dismiss such a person.  If I can’t get along with them, then what good is it?

I guess what’s different this time is that this individual is brilliant.  The work he does speaks volumes about his abilities.  He understands that side of our business in a way that I could only dream of.  If I had half of his abilities, I would consider myself gifted.  I am comfortable saying that I have the utmost respect for the work that he does.

The area that he works in really goes hand in hand with the area that I work in.  The two areas really need to mesh well for our business to be successful.  Sure there are others in the same type of role as him that I can work with, but it’s not the same.  They don’t get it.  They don’t see the big picture. 

I’ve decided that I will do everything in my power to smooth out the wrinkles, even if it kills me.  I feel as though together we are a force to be reckoned with and that personal conflicts can be overcome.  It’s too easy to get caught up in emotional madness and lose out on great success.

Life is short, so it’s now or never.

The report comes from Japan’s Society of Energy and Resources (JSER) and represents an astonishing dismissal of the current belief set.  The scientists behind the report claim that the recent climate changes are driven by natural cycles, as opposed to the popular belief that the warming is caused by industrial green house gas emissions. 

With ex-presidents like Al Gore making movies that attempt to show you how industry is destroying the earth via global warming, it’s questionable how many in the general public will be swayed by the scientific facts.  Western culture dictates that information in movies is more compelling than scientific truth and fact.

Before anyone noticed, this hypothesis has been substituted for truth... The opinion that great disaster will really happen must be broken.

The report tackles some key facts that disrupt the common belief set.  The first of these is the fact that global warming has actually halted.  Global temperatures rose from 1800-1850.  The rate of increase was .06 degrees Celsius per 100 years.  This could not have been related to CO2 gas because CO2 gas didn’t increase rapidly until 1946. 

More importantly, the global rise in temperature has halted as of 2001, while CO2 emissions continue to rise at an alarming rate.

The report is full of this type of scientific data that can really help us understand what we are dealing with.  It is critical to understand though that the greenhouse gas emissions still need to be reduced.  They still have negative and harmful effects on the environment, but global warming isn’t one of them.

One can only hope for a wake up call on the global warming issue.  Scientists and researcher could be making better use of their time figuring out how to help the human race survive these natural climate changes, instead of trying to prove the western propaganda.

About 5 days ago my Network Attached Storage (NAS) started to give me a hard time.  To give you a little background, I run a free Linux distribution called FreeNAS as the operating system that manages the network storage devices.  The NAS is simply a PC with a couple of hard drives in it that runs from the FreeNAS boot CD.  It uses a USB thumb drive to store the configuration data. 

Much of the data stored on my home NAS is movies and TV shows that we watch using our Xbox 360 as a media center. 

When I say it started giving me a hard time, what I mean is that it started with an error saying that the file I was trying to play was an invalid format.   Assuming the file was corrupt, I decided to try another file.  Same problem.  My troubleshooting skills kicked in and I tried a previously watched video.  Again, playback failed with the same error.

Next I went to my PC and tried to connect to the network share.  It connected and I was getting mildly perplexed, at least until I tried to open a folder.  At that point I was notified that the destination was unreachable.  After some further detective work I discovered that one of the NAS drives had failed.  The many emails that my FreeNAS server had emailed to me should have clued me in to the impending doom.  However, somehow I had convinced myself that they held no merit.

That said, I ordered a DLink DNS-323 NAS with a 1TB Western Digital Green hard drive from NCIX.  I also ordered a second 1TB WD Green drive from their sister company, Direct Canada.  All told, I spent around $400 after taxes and shipping.

What really impressed me was the fact that both shipments arrived together.  You see, I have separate accounts with each company, I sent two different payment types and the orders were placed hours apart.  NCIX sent me an email with a shipment tracking number, however Direct Canada still showed as pending shipping.  Today when I picked up the order, both drives and the new NAS were there.

Somehow, some way, the order processing process for both companies is efficient enough to detect both of my orders and ship them together.  To put the icing on the cake, I ordered on Friday and delivery was attempted on Monday.  These companies are a dream to deal with.

I am an office worker.  I live a cookie cutter life where I punch in and punch out at the same time every day.  Eight of my sixteen waking hours in a day are spent in my cubicle?  What’s a cubicle you ask? 

Similar to a jail cell, the cubicle is a confined space where I must spend my days toiling away.  The cubicle is normally decorated in drab colours like grey or 70’s brown.  There is a florescent light affixed below my hanging storage shelf, which casts an eerie glow like the fluorescent lamps of an abandoned hospital, made popular by many a horror flick.

I’m given the tools to do my job.  I have a computer with a keyboard, mouse and monitor.  The company has supplied an office calendar, but like all office supplies from the catalogue it has neither style or grace.  It’s bland.  That’s what they want the atmosphere to be.  Bland.

No items are allowed in the cubicle warehouse that might provoke creative thought or independence.  Let me explain.  The cubicle warehouse is the inside of my office building.  Floor after floor, row after row, the cubicles are neatly organized for optimum efficiency.  The simplicity of the program is one that allows for maximum cubicles in minimum space.  Navigating the cubicles is like that of a maze, random pathways reveal themselves as the corridors are traversed.  I question whether they are in the same location from day to day.

A spaghetti bowl of wires navigates its way through the office.  Sometimes in the floor, sometimes in the ceiling.  It connects the cubicles to the bare necessities of office life.  Power, telephone, and network.

I’m part of a system, a system that’s designed to generate revenue to line the pockets of some people that I will never meet.  I work for a minimum wage so that I can provide a roof over my family and food on our table.  I will never know the luxury of the fat cats who run the system.  I’m merely a pawn, a slave to their cubicle containment system.  They are my prison, and the cubicle my cell.

Last night we were blessed with one of the marvelous free Ultimate Fighting Championship events – UFC 95 on Spike TV.  Wow.  There is a lot to be said about Pay-Per-VIew when you compare it to regular broadcast television. 

Take, for example, the fact that you don’t have to suffer through commercials.  Last night was three hours of agony as Spike aired commercials after every round of fighting and multiple times between fights.  It’s always been bad enough that Joe and Mike announce advertisements in the middle of a match, but when you add to that the actual 16 - 24 minutes of commercials every hour it gets a little bit ridiculous.

I’m sure the sponsors paid enough to cover off commercial air time, which would go a long way to satisfying customers.

The fights were also not live, as they normally would be.  Due to the fights taking place in the United Kingdom, the broadcast occurred quite some time after the actual fights.  This allowed for such great television tricks as airing the fighters walking out to the octagon to fill time, because they wouldn’t have enough filler to make the three hour event. 

Some of you will say “Wait though, don’t they always air that?”.  For the most part you are correct.  On PPV, you normally get to see the fighters come out.  The pain point is when you watch them come out, then get another commercial before the fight starts.

The fights themselves were sub par.  Plenty of nobodies and 30 second knock outs.  Some questionable, some obvious.  The main event, Joe Stevenson ‘vs’ Diego Sanchez, was a three round boxing match that went to the judges for a clear decision to Sanchez.  The fight lacked hype and excitement and I was disappointed that I stayed up just for that.

Dana White continues to drive the UFC into the ground.  Good work Dana.

Don’t you ever feel like someone is always trying to take the money out of your pocket?  Whether it’s the tax man, the grocery store, the auto mechanic, the school board, or the girl guides selling cookies – someone is always trying to get at your hard earned cash.

So what set me off today?  My Xbox.

An Xbox 360 is a fairly expensive item.  The Elite version will run you $450 and that doesn’t include games or accessories.  The accessories will nail you pretty good.  The system comes with one controller, and it’s wireless to boot.  That means you can fork out for new AAs every 20 hours, or you can by the $30 rechargeable battery pack and charger.  If you want to play with a friend, shell out another $40 - $90 for a second controller.  Don’t forget to buy some games for $50 - $70 each.

If you’ve gotten all of that, then you might think that you are set.  Maybe you are, but nowadays most kids (even the adult ones) want to play multiplayer games online with others.  So you could open your wallet and purchase the wireless network adaptor for your console, or connect it by wire to your router, and voila!  An Interweb connected Xbox!

That’s not good enough though.  In order to actually join an online game, you need to have a subscription to Xbox Live Gold.  Now you can expect to spend $5 - $10 per month (depending on how you purchased it) to play online.  Don’t you pay enough for the Internet connection already?

Companies today are going to great lengths to force you to send a regular stream of cash to their bank accounts – and it’s not right.  Can you really tell me that Microsoft needs this money to offer you the ability to play online?  I don’t think so.  Most companies who make computer games include online play in the one-time purchase price and seem quite successful.  There are exceptions though, such as the money hungry creators of World of Warcraft – Blizzard.

At the rate we are going, we won’t need bank accounts because our pay checks will feed right into the services that we have purchased.

Further to my previous post about renewing my licence plates on time, I often reflect on Police and the services they provide to the community.  For the most part, I am left feeling unimpressed and unprotected when it comes to the police at any level – municipal, provincial, or federal.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the police has to do with the Highway Traffic Act.  I can’t for the life of me understand why it is the responsibility of the police to monitor and punish traffic violations.  Transport Canada and the individual provincial transportation ministries should be responsible for having staff who patrol and enforce the traffic laws.  The police should be dedicated to protecting and serving.

I wonder how many people are raped, murdered, or robbed while an office is writing a ticket for driving 10 km over the speed limit.  I want to ask them if they have kids at home and how they would feel if their family was being slaughtered and nobody was there to protect them because they were ticketing some j***who wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.

There are times I am glad to see them pulling over people though…

Like when a driver is pushing 200 km/h+ with a child in the car.  Or when a drunk is weaving all over the road, threatening the lives of anyone they come in contact with.  These are all valid in my mind.

I think that if we, as a nation, separated traffic from other crime, then the crime rate would go down because the resources would be better allocated in the places they need to be in.  The streets would be safer, the jails would be more crowded, and the court system would be even more of a zoo. 

Wait a minute, weren’t those last two points very negative?  Yes they were.  The world isn’t perfect, and we won’t get there in a day.

Last week my wife was driving my truck on a provincial highway when an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) cruiser decided to pull her over.  He had been driving in front of her, then pulled off onto the shoulder and waited for her to pass, then shot in behind her with the sirens blazing.

For a 5-month pregnant woman, with two other children in the truck, I imagine she was pretty upset.  Especially since she had never been pulled over before.

Why was she pulled over?  That was my fault.  Apparently the licence plates on my new truck had expired last October and I had failed to renew them.  There are a million reasons why the renewal had lapsed, all of which were unintentional.

The plates on my previous car had been renewed up to October 2009, leading me to make a mental note that I had renewed my plates.  I had bought trailer plates in August and realized that my licence was expiring in two months, so I asked if I could renew it then and there.  The woman at the Ministry office told me that a letter had already been mailed and I should ignore it.  So I did.  All good reasons as to why it wasn’t done, no excuses though.

To add insult to injury, my wife was unable to produce current proof of insurance slips.  I had put the new slips in the truck, but they weren’t where they were supposed to be.  Luckily, the officer gave her a break and only gave her a small fine for the insurance slips.  The next day I went down to the Ministry and renewed my licence plates for another two years.

It would be nice to have had a reminder sent to my house by the Ministry telling me that I hadn’t renewed on time, rather than sending their OPP dogs after me.  I wish it had been me driving that day, so that my wife wouldn’t have had the ordeal. 

Lesson learned though, I’ll be more diligent next time.

I’m not a religious man, but I see the value in having something to believe in.  I also see the value in right versus wrong, good versus bad, and good behavioural practices for society as a whole.  Everyone (hopefully) agrees that rape and murder are wrong.  This post isn’t about those types of extreme deviation.  It’s about the little things that we’ve lost as a civilization, thanks to technology.

I got thinking about this after reading an article on CNET News about a woman who discovered that her husband was divorcing her after reading his updated Facebook status.  The message read “Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady."

That’s pretty cheap.  I don’t have opinions one way or the other on divorce, but if you are going to do it, at least try to be civilized.  Divorce is a personal, and often painful proceeding for most couples looking to go down that route.  In this case, Facebook allowed Mr. Neil Brady to share the news with any number of users, leaving the Mrs. to find it and read it for herself.  

Facebook isn’t alone though, there are many a technology tool that allows cowards to send their messages without ever having to face the other party.  Text Messages, instant messages, micro-blogs (i.e Twitter), email, social networking.  The list goes on and on.  It almost seems that society is looking for anonymity. 

Anonymous relationships, how preposterous.

Delivering the message isn’t the only way technology is helping us get to the brink of de-evolution.  Take another case where a divorce was sparked by a husband being a little too friendly on the ever popular Facebook.  I’m not going to choose a side on this one.  He was acting inappropriate, she initiated a divorce.  Since they had only been married 6 months, I would hope that they could talk it out or something. 

It could be for better, it could be for worse.  All I know is that 50 years ago, this scenario could never have happened.

I do rather enjoy this quote from an article in the Guardian – it reads Facebook “is for the bored, the boring, the unfulfilled.”

Having two little girls and a baby boy on the way, I spend a lot of time thinking about (and researching) online protection.  The girls (6 and 8) have their own PC and they are given the liberty of using it as they see fit… mostly.

As a parent, I have taken the time to understand what things like Google SafeSearch are and how to configure it.  This allows the kids the flexibility to feel as though they are searching for themselves, while giving me the peace of mind to know that I don’t have to be standing over their shoulder every minute.

Now, don’t misread what I said – tools like SafeSearch are not babysitters.  You still need to interact with your children and from time to time, you need to check up on them.  There is a handy website out there called KidRex that is basically a kid friendly version of the Google search engine.  The colourful crayon-like drawings on the page help kids feel right at home.  The protection system helps parents relax.

I tried to search for all kinds of adult things on KidRex and failed every time.

That’s just the search side of things though.  What about the rest?  What about the links from sites that the kids make it to.  What about the downloadable music that is actually a virus. What about the predators on instant messengers and social networking sites?  The list goes on forever.  We need to recognize it, but we shouldn’t be paranoid.

The biggest problem with kids and computers today is simply that the parents aren’t familiar with the dangers or the steps you would take to prevent them.  Educational programs for parents could go a very long way, but what if it wasn’t as necessary?

I’d like to see someone (read anyone) produce a lightweight, kid-friendly operating system that has all of the protection pieces built right in.  Designed for kids in a way that makes using a computer safe and fun.  This would make it really easy for non-techie parents to achieve a satisfactory level of safety for their little ones. 

Is this a pipe dream, or will someone actually do it?

Until then, visit the Google Tips for Online Safety page and see what simple things you can be doing to protect your loved ones.

It’s been about three months since I first wrote about my addiction to my newly acquired Xbox 360.  Well, that addiction continues to grow. 

It’s safe to say that not a single day goes by where I don’ interact with my Xbox in some way.  I’ve recently figured out how to stream television and movies through my Xbox using the TVersity uPnP server.  This makes it super easy to move from TV to gaming.

I’ve acquired a decent collection of games since receiving my 360.  The list includes Need For Speed Pro Street, Grand Theft Auto, NHL 08, Unreal Tournament III, Rumble Rose, and a few others that are escaping my mind at the moment. 

Of that list, GTA continues to be my number one pick.  I play it every day and am competing with a friend for achievements and gamer tag score.

GTA is incredibly addictive for a number of reasons.  The first of which is the shock factor.  In GTA you can take out random citizens with as much or as little gore as you would like.  You can shoot people, knife them, beat them with a bat, run them over, or even blow them up. 

The second addiction factor is the loose storyline.  While there are missions to be had and stories to be played out in GTA, you work them at your own pace.  One can spend considerable amounts of time simply interacting with the environment. 

For example, you can drive around looking for hidden weapons caches.  You can also be on the lookout for stunt jumps, which are usually dirt ramps to nowhere that offer you the chance to increase the dramatic effects of the game.  One of my personal favourites is the pigeon hunt.  There are 200 pigeons in the game that you can eliminate by any means necessary! 

Thanks to the folks at Rockstar games, I think my addiction is here to stay!

Ever since I purchased my HydroPool hot tub last summer, I have been on one adventure after another.  You may recall my bouts with the Ozone injector, random overheat, and the fizzy-bubbly.

This time the adventure was a disgusting one.  For the second time I had completely lost the tub from a chemical standpoint.  I was using a new chemical product called Peroxysan, which was supposed to make my life simpler.  Peroxysan has all the makings of snake-oil medicine.  It comes with the promise of cleaner water, longevity of components and swimwear, and fewer complete water exchanges per year.  Sound too good to be true?  It is.

The Peroxysan had it’s plus sides.  There was no real distinct chemical smell to the tub.  The swim shorts seemed to take less of a beating than they would have against traditional chlorine or bromine.  Both of which are very desirable traits.

On the down side, there were many factors that caused me to re-evaluate its use.  For instance, I had to wear heavy rubber gloves when adding the chemical to the spa, as it would burn my fingers if even the smallest amount splashed on them.  There seemed to be a gooey residue on the inside of the spa cover that I would have to squeegee off weekly.  The filter cartridges had to be swapped out weakly and rinsed thoroughly before being left to soak in a cleaning solution for the week. 

The worst part of using Peroxysan came when it was time to recover the water.  I had started to notice a very nasty odour coming from my hot tub and after testing I realized that it was low on chemical.  So I added more.  I tested again the next day, still low.  I added more again.  I continued this pattern for a few days and the smell started to go away.  Meanwhile I discovered chunks of substance similar to the cover goo inside the tub.  Not good.

The straw that broke the camels back was when I opened the soaking canister and it was the most foul smell I had ever had make its way into my nose.  The canister was also filled with the brown, gooey substance.  That was it.  I drained the tub and purchase a bromine starter kit.  Now I’m back to what I know and I suspect there will be no issues with water management.

This is another one of those posts where I feel the need to clarify that it’s not about me.  I’m not an alcoholic (they all say that).  I have only ever been to one meeting and it was specifically to celebrate the one year anniversary of a family member who has worked really hard at recovery.

Being at the meeting opened my eyes to the world of Alcoholics Anonymous.  I was able to validate many of the things I had heard about the group, as well as gather some new insight. 

Looking around the meeting hall, I was amazed to see people of all ages, from all walks of life, who were trying to get their lives on track. Every time someone stands up to speak, they state their name and reaffirm that they are an alcoholic.  At first I thought this to be a little demeaning, however I quickly came to the realization that this step is a necessary reminder for the individual.  It is also a way for them to show that they accept the condition they are in and are able to tell the world that they acknowledge it.

There was one guest speaker who came to share his story and I admired the courage he showed in telling his tale in front of the crowd.  His tale spun from childhood abuse and alcoholic parents, to hardcore drugs and run-ins with the law.  Two near death experiences eventually snapped him out of it and made him the man he was today.  His final message was that he couldn’t have done it without finding God.

That’s the part where I learned something new about AA.  While the group itself is connected with no religious denomination, their 12 steps are heavily linked to God.  If memory serves me, one complete step is accepting God.  No acceptance, no recovery.  The message I took away was that if you don’t find God, you can’t recover from alcoholism.  This doesn’t bode well for alcoholic atheists. 

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it is 2009 and dial-up Internet still exists.  For the record, this post isn’t about me.  I have high speed. In fact, I have very good high-speed DSL Internet that I purchase from Acanac.

Also for the record, this is not a paid advertisement of any sort, just my personal experience.

I remember back in the 90’s when dial-up was the only option for Internet access.  We did some fancy things like using software to allow the Internet connection to dial if anyone on the network attempted to access the Internet.  I used to run two phone lines so that I wouldn’t tie up my main line.

Then one day cable Internet access spawned and I said goodbye to dial-up.  The new blazing fast speeds and separation from the phone line was well worth the cost.  Cable Internet would suffice for a number of years.  In fact, even when DSL came out, I couldn’t be swayed from cable. 

I began to take high speed Internet for granted, until I moved to the country somewhere around 2001.  I was shocked to discover that my beloved cable was no longer an option.  Begrudgingly, I turned to DSL – only to discover that I was too far out even for this option.  The only Internet I could acquire was dial-up. 

It was a nightmare that I somehow managed to survive until I returned to the city limits a year or so later.  I vowed to never again be without high speed Internet.  It would prove to be a factor in any future house hunting endeavours.

Now, to the point of the story.  My grandparents live in the country and a few years ago they decided to go online.  Dial-up was the only option for them and even that is flaky at the best of times.  The max connection speed seems to be 28 Kbps, even with a 56 Kbps modem.

Everything become impossible.  Remote assistance, Windows updates, anti-virus updates.  The last time I was there, AVG was indicating that it would take 16 hours to download it’s 67 MB update.  Often it is easier just to bring the computer back to my place from time to time, plug it into my network and do all the updates on high speed.  It’s time to make dial-up extinct and replace it with a viable and affordable alternative.

I’m pretty sure that I had a small heart attack the last time I opened my hydro bill.  There’s a very good reason for that.  It was $600.

I should mention that this was for two months.  I appreciate that being a family of four, we use a little more power than say a couple without kids or a single adult.  This just didn’t seem right though.  I started to ask around to find out what others were paying.  A colleague of mine who has one child was using 1/3 of the hydro that we are using.  Wow!

So I set out on a mission to understand my bill and lower my costs.  The first thing to do was examine the miscellaneous charges on the bill.  There are a lot.  30% – 40% of my bill is service charges of some sort.  The list includes:

• Monthly Service Charge
• Distribution Volumetric Charge
• Network Service Charge
• Line Connection Charge
• Debt Retirement Charge

The only one of these that is static is the Monthly Service Charge.  The rest are all billed per KW/h.  Why would a Line Connection Charge be based on my consumption?  I don’t need a bigger line and my usage certainly doesn’t require additional work from the hydro company.  Regardless, I now know where a good chunk of my money goes.

Next I looked at the actual consumption.  We used 5200 KW/h over a 68 day period.  Wow, that is a lot.  It’s not a one time deal either, this is becoming routine.  Our house does have a lot of power hungry devices.  We have a pool, hot tub, two fridges, server rack, media centers, game consoles, furnace, air conditioner.  You name it, we have it. 

So the trick now is to determine what uses the most power so that we can try to eliminate or adjust usage.  I bought this handy little gadget from Canadian Tire for $18 called the Blue Planet Energy Meter.  You plug it into the wall, then you plug the appliance or device into the Meter.  From that point it measure how much power the item consumes and how often.  It will be instrumental in determining where to consolidate and where to cut back.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Where was I?  Oh right, the boys were doing a slide show.

At some point, Ricky tried to convince the other two that he could “hypotize” people.  He claimed to have seen Ravine do it and also claimed to have done it in jail.  There was one small catch though.  He couldn’t “unhypotize” people.  They would have to watch a short video to do the “swap-swip” and re-sort their brain departments and compartments.

Several audience volunteers were brought up for Ricky to hypnotize, but Bubbles actually gets hypnotized as well.  The whole thing is just a ploy to hypnotize the parole officers so the boys can get drunk and high.  It apparently works.

Intermission.

After the break, we come back from some more audience participation.  This time it’s to get a pair of Corey and Trevor look-alikes onstage to help out.  Then Hamilton’s best “party girls” are brought up for a contest that involved rolling dope, transferring rum from one bottle to another by mouth only, and bobbin for turds.  My personal favorite, Bubbles had some cat pans filled with oatmeal and some chocolate turds to bob for.

After the competition, the boys decided to have another audience participation event.  This time is was a call for 80’s rockers who could play a solo on the flying V electric guitar that Bubbles brought.  It was a flashback straight to the 80’s. 

Bubbles played some songs and ended with “Liquor and Whores” from the TPB movie soundtrack – which riled the audience right up.  It would seem everyone was waiting for this.  The boys then played the descrambling video and said their goodnights.

One last surprise though…

Conky came out for a visit.  He wanted to say goodnight too.  He also decided to re-enact some of his best scenes from the show.  Fans got their moneys worth and more.  Check out the show if you get a chance!

On Thursday we took a trip to Hamilton Ontario to see the Trailer Park Boys World Tour.  I had no idea what to expect, but I was sure it would be a lot of laughs.

The venue was The Great Hall at Hamilton place and it was a very interesting theatre.  It seats 2200 people and has two massive balconies.  Our seats were in the third row of the first balcony.  We had a great view of the stage, with the only downside being that we couldn’t participate in any audience participation antics.

Another drawback of the Great Hall is that alcohol must be consumed outside of the theatre, in the lobby areas.  They only have one bar on each level, so line ups were impossible when trying to get drinks.  This angered many a drunk and high Trailer Park Boys fan.

We did manage to get back a couple of drinks before the show started, then settled in for very amusing couple of hours.

The premise of the travelling event is that Ricky, Bubbles, and Julian are doing a travelling Variety Show as part of a community service program.  The boys start out with a “don’t drink and do drugs” puppet show that quickly goes awry, leaving Bubbles alone onstage to fend for himself.  He cracks a couple of jokes and pees himself.  At this point I realize that this is going to be a very funny evening.

The boys eventually all come back and Ricky is quick to point out that Bubbles has peed his pants.  Furious, Bubbles storms off stage, only to return as the Green Bastard and ready to give Ricky a serious beating.  Things settle down and they flip through a picture slide show where it is revealed that Ricky though that a Deert (Deer as a Ricky-ism) was actually a female horse.  Plenty of further pictures show Ricky a little drunk, or a little passed out.

At some point the boys point out that their parole officers are in the crowd, so they better start behaving…

After wandering around the Pit Party at the Rogers Centre for a couple of hours, we found ourselves getting pretty tired.  The Pit Party shut down at 5pm and fans had the option of staying until show time, or leaving and coming back at show.  Your choice had to stick though, as they lock the doors.

We decided to grab a bite to eat and have a seat to rest up after hour hours of unplanned exercise.  My wife opted for the hotdog and I went for the custom Mr. Sub sandwich.  I thought it would have been pre-made, but they made it fresh for me.  Woohoo!  It took what seemed like forever for the show to get started.

The same annoying announcer that is at every Monster Jam I’ve been to was onsite last night to keep our happiness down.  This time, with a twist, they brought in a second annoying, local announcer to add to the excitement. 

The show kicked off with the Street Warriors, which I am quite fond of.  Seamingly everyday people driving mostly everyday cars in an effort to win the tournament.  I think it goes without saying that the guys who put a little bit of cash into their car were the ones who made it to the end.

The show also had its share of additional crappy side shows.  The RC cars that you can’t see from anywhere were back, however the quad racers were not.  I’m thankful, they were also annoying. 

I was rather disappointed at the trucks overall last night.  At least half of them, if not more, managed to break down over the course of the evening.  Some just started smoking and shut down.  Others managed to break components throughout the races and freestyle.  One truck, Prowler, actually lost a rear tire after landing a hard jump. 

Fans were nearly devastated when the Grave Digger truck broke down, but crews from all the trucks came together to get Grave Digger back together for the freestyle event.   Dennis Anderson did his part by rolling the truck upside down as he came out of a donut.  After using some Cat equipment to upright the truck, Dennis went on to finish and win the freestyle competition.

The night ended with a demolition derby and it was very exciting.  One car actually caught fire as crews pulled the driver out and worked to put out the flames.  All that excitement tired me out and braving the blizzard home was a whole other story.

A couple of days ago we decided that we would take a trip to Toronto to see the first Monster Jam in Ontario in 2009.  That trek happened yesterday, and it was an adventure for sure. 

We left just after noon and started our hour and a half drive.  The drive up wasn’t that bad.  The weather was good, the traffic was light.  Well, mostly light.  When we hit the Gardener Expressway and neared the Lakeshore exit, the traffic started to slow down.  I suspect it was all of the Monster Jam fans rushing to get to the Pit Party that started at 2:30pm. 

All said, after the drive and parking, we made it to the gates of the Rogers Centre at about 2:30pm.  The line-ups weren’t that bad, and we seemed to get inside in very short order.  We wandered around looking at the various merchandise for sale and checking out the scene.  Down on the field, we could see the monster trucks parked, all nice and shiny, waiting for the fans to snap pictures.

We made our way down to the field and noticed an incredibly large line of fans that stretched half way around the stadium.  They were waiting to get an autograph from world famous Grave Digger driver, Dennis Anderson. 

The Pit Party featured all of the trucks participating in the event, as well as a few other spectacles.  One such spectacle was an antique tank that was being refinished by one of the local high schools.  Also on the scene was Sergeant Splatters Paintball staff, handing out free passes to play paintball at their location.

The Pit Party gives fans a great opportunity to get up close to the trucks, but also to walk the track and get a close up view of just what these mighty machines will be taking on.  The trucks at the event this time were:

• Madusa (Debra Miceli)
• Warrior (Roger Cardot)
• Backdraft (Jeremy Slifko)
• The Broker (Lou Antonozzi)
• Prowler (Lenny Kuilder)
• Aftershock (Bob Robbins)
• Eradicator (Andy Slifko)
• Predator (Robert Parker)
• Bulldozer (Chuck Werner)
• Maximum Destruction (Kreg Kristensen)
• Grave Digger (Dennis Anderson)

Over the past few months, Google has taken many steps towards saving money, to avoid having to lay off any staff.  For example, this past Christmas marked the first year that Google has downsized it’s employee bonus program.  Rather than the traditional $20,000 bonus, employees were rewarded with cell phones sporting the Google Android operating system.

Inevitability, it would seem, is unavoidable even for a super power like Google.

The search giant had already reduced it's hiring rate and is now reducing its hiring staff.  The Google corporate blog noted that it’s axing about 100 jobs in its recruiting offices.

Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," said Laszlo Bock, Google's vice president of people operations, in the blog posting. "Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.

Google is also closing down various projects including Lively and SearchMash.  Users will also start seeing advertisements in previously ad-free applications such as Google Finance and Google Maps.  Google has also pared back the 10,000 contractor employees they had not so long ago.  Very sad indeed.

Of course, all of that is trivial to the worst news I’ve read yet:

Google has decided that there will be no more bottled water provided to employees in the office. 

How will the remaining employees function without their bottled water and $20,000 bonuses.  My heart goes out to them and their families.  Hard times are upon us.  Let’s hope they don’t take away their Nerf weaponry anytime soon.  That could cause a mutiny.

If Facebook, MySpace, or FriendFeed are any indication, then you probably have many more friends than you might have indicated before using them.  Wait, what?

That might have been a little confusing.  Let me give the explanation another try...

According to Facebook, I have nearly a hundred "friends".  I've seen some people who have hundreds and even thousands of "friends".  How did they get so popular?  How did I end up with nearly a hundred friends?

Easy, these social networking tools allow you to connect with people who you might have lost touch with in the past.  So, you add them to your friends list.  What happens next is that someone who is a friend of your re-acquainted friend notices that the two of you are now connected.  This new person might have met you once, or went to the same school as you.  They decide to add you as a friend.  Are you really friends?

How many people in your friends list would you actually classify as a friend?  How many of them do you keep in touch with?  How much do you really know about the majority of them?  

These web sites have been very good at making people feel better about themselves by making them feel like they have a lot of friends, but they have caused some serious hardship too.  Like the case of Megan Meier, the teenager who ended her own life after some malicious peers and their parents tormented her via MySpace.  

After pretending to be a fictitious boy who won the heart of Miss Meier, the group cruelly broke that heart.

There have also been dozens of stalking cases where the stalker gained access to personal information via these social networking sites.  Perpetrators will often pose as a friend of a friend, allowing them to gain access to your friends list.  Once approved, they have access to the hordes of personal information that the majority of users seem to feel comfortable posting online.  Doing so makes you an easy target. 

Take a minute to revisit the sites that you use and think about what you have posted up there.  Look at your friends lists to determine who really are the friends that you need to have on there.  If your networking site of choice allows you to group your friends and adjust privileges, do that.  Sort out your friends from your acquaintances and isolate accordingly. 

2.6 million is a lot of jobs to lose.  That's U.S. figure that I saw published on multiple sites this week.  For millions of people and families, it was a very rough year.  The information technology sector saw a bulk of those cutbacks as major companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, and Sony laid off thousands of employees in moves designed to fight falling revenues. 

Gone are the days of over-inflated IT shops.  Today's IT professionals have to be more efficient than ever as their departments are down-sized into lean, effective units.  Many IT pros will find themselves doing the work of what used to be several employees.  

You can't blame the companies entirely though.  North America is in a recession and that means that the money just isn't flowing.  The auto industry has seen huge cutbacks over the past year as many of the big players struggle to maintain their existence.  Everyone is hurting.

The unfortunate truth is that most large organizations are not efficient.  Employees and their work habits are generally not well managed.  I can't count the number of times that I have seen an employee take a week to complete a task that should take about two hours.  If that's the case, what is the employee doing with the other 34+ hours in the week.  And if multiple employees are wasting time like this, it becomes very easy to see how much money can be saved by staff reduction - without sacrificing production.  Simply ensuring that one employee is actually working for the entire time that they are supposed to be could eliminate many inefficient staffers.

That being said, I don't want to take away from the job losses.  Over 2 million families out there are facing tough times coming out of 2009, and who knows how high that number would grow if you factored in families that were already having a tough time due to other circumstances.

In western culture, we've accepted democracy (at least a jaded form of democracy) over communism.  That equates to Darwinism.  Only the strong survive, the weak shall perish.  Society as a whole isn't interested in helping those who are suffering, the strong only want to help the other strong people maintain their stature.  

Every day is another day that I am thankful that I still have a job, yet I wish there was more I could do for those who don't have lost theirs.

This week CNN posted a very interesting, yet somewhat controversial article about the genetic screening of an embryo to ensure that the baby would not carry a cancer.  The cancer-free baby, the first ever in Britain known to be screened as an embryo for cancer, was born on Friday.  

Days after conception occurred, the embryo underwent pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.  The embryo was screened for the BRCA-1 gene - the gene known to cause breast and ovarian cancer.  Anyone carrying this gene is between 50 and 80 percent likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer.  This little girl will never experience the pain of either.  

How can that be a bad thing?  

It's not.  There is not a person on this planet who could tell you otherwise, but that's not really the ethical dilemma.  The real dilemma lies in what happens when an embryo is found to carry a cancer gene.  

The thing to remember about the story is that we didn't find a cure for cancer, we simply found a way to determine if a child will be born "cancer-free".  So as this becomes mainstream, what will happen to embryos that are found to carry the cancer gene?  There is a very strong and very real possibility that they will be aborted.

There will be strong arguments on both sides of the fence, as there always has been, about whether an embryo is actually a child and abortion rights debates will grow stronger than ever.  Everyone wants to have a healthy baby, not everyone believes in abortion.  

There's also no telling what affect this will have on mankind.  Will a stronger, more resilient cancer appear to take the place of the missing cancers?  Will the population grow wildly out of control with the removal of natural selection?  Will mankind destroy itself in the midst of the debate?  That last one may be a little far-fetched, but the controversy is real.  

How do you feel about genetic screening and abortion? 

It is with profound sadness that I bring you the news that the Trailer Park Boys is coming to an end.  Even though producer Mike Clattenburg had announced that the boys would be back for another season after taking a year off to recoup from their movie, millions of fans will be disappointed to learn that it was just a lie.

The boys have done their final season.

The hit mockumentary on television’s Showcase channel aired it’s final episode a few weeks ago.  It was a one hour special that takes place just after their first hit movie – The Big Dirrty.   in which Lahey finally wins and the boys all end up in prison.  Cyrus and Sam Losco even came back for guest appearances, but the best cameo was made by Gord Downey of the Tragically Hip. 

The special episode is full of all the great comedy that fans have grown to love.  For instance Julian is now driving a Delorian, even though he thinks that it might be a “little too flashy”.  Ray is now bottling his own liquor down at the dump, although the seagulls are getting increasingly aggressive.  Bubbles finds a meat slicer at the dump, and uses it to make bologna sandwiches at a singles dance that Lahey and the boys put on.

Randy’s gut makes several guest appearances during the episode as well. 

The boys have one more big hurrah before the lights go dim.  They’ll be making another feature length film, which is scheduled to hit theatres in October 2009.  They are also doing a travelling road show, which we’ll be heading to see this month. 

As a die hard fan, I am truly disappointed in the decision to can the show.  It was bad enough that they only made 6–8 episodes per season, but now to end it all just doesn’t seem right.

It appears that the lies we’ve been told about how piracy could kill the movie industry have been disproven by the story fabricators themselves.

For years the Movie Picture Association of America (MPAA) has tried to convince the world that they are victims of evil pirates.  They’ve spent countless dollars advertising and fighting legal battles to show that piracy is hurting their business in a big way.  From the early days of Napster, the MPAA has been filling our heads full of their heartfelt sob stories about how the industry could completely collapse because of piracy.

So, I’ll ask you just one question that will completely negate any view that the MPAA has ever put into your head about piracy:

If piracy is so bad, why did the movie industry see record revenues at the box office in 2008?

Those record setting revenues topped $9.78 billion in 2008.  The industry saw about 1.36 billion movie tickets sold in the US and Canada, down slightly from 1.4 billion sold in 2007 – according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The reason behind the incredible earnings in 2008 is mainly due to a 4.7% increase in average ticket prices across the US. 

Last year was also the year that The Dark Night hit theatres – earning $531 million and becoming the second highest-grossing theatrical release in history.  The only movie ever to gross higher was 1997’s Titanic.

All of this leaves the public to wonder why the great concerns about piracy?  Clearly the numbers are still there to support the industry.  Maybe now the MPAA can back off a little and stop being drama queens.  You can’t kill piracy.  On top of that, piracy isn’t going to affect the newest movies in the theatres.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Who wants to watch a cammed version of something like The Dark Night?  The quality is beyond horrible.

I’ve been a member of the working class for a long time.  In the years I have spent chained to an office desk, I’ve seen my fair share of coat-tail riders.  What exactly is a coat-tail rider?  It’s someone who lets you do all kinds of great work, contributes very little (if anything at all), then accepts some or all of the credit for said work.  Seems kinda shifty, doesn’t it?

It does.

Now the first thing I ask myself after reading that first paragraph is – why not just stop them from getting credit?  Maybe tell the truth about what they have done, or even call them on it.  Well, it’s not that simple.  Usually when someone realizes that their coat-tails have a rider on them it’s already too late.  The person has already been given the undue credit and to call them on it would often blow up in your face – making you look like the proverbial bad guy.

There are a couple of small things that you can do to try to catch these dirty scoundrels in the act.  First and foremost, you should keep an eye out for anyone who seems to have an unjustified interest in your work.  If it doesn’t pertain to them, try not to be too forthcoming with the details.  The second thing you can do is watch out for anyone who is assigned to work with you on your task or project, however just isn’t delivering any outputs.  They will likely be looking to benefit from your work.

If you’ve been taken by this type of lazy co-workers, try to move past it.  Getting worked up about it won’t help you one bit!  Use it as a learning experience and try to make sure if doesn’t happen again.

If you happen to be one of these people who enjoys stealing the glory from the hard workers, take a look in the mirror.  You’re looking at a greasy slimeball.  

At least that would have been a better name than "The Ultimate 2008".

Last night's Ultimate Fighting Championship was a spectacle indeed, but unfortunately it left much to be desired for hardcore UFC fans.  Touted to be the biggest and most amazing UFC event of the year, the organization lined up an all-star cast of fighters. 

The main event list included:

• Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans 
• Minotauro Nogueira vs Frank Mir
• Rampage Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva

It was a pretty impressive line up for the main events and the rest of the fight card was pretty good as well.  We saw the return of some favorites such as:

• CB Dollaway vs Mike Massenzio
• Cheick Kongo vs Mustapha Al-Turk
• Matt Hamill vs Reese Andy

Warning:  Reading any further might be a spoiler for you if you plan to watch the fights later!

The event started off strong with Cheick Kongo knocking out Al-Turk near the end of the first round.  It was the Kongo we've all come to love and respect.  So why all the talk about let downs earlier?  Glad you asked.

All three of the favorites for the main even lost last night.  The recently title-stripped, thrown in jail for going on a rampage, Quentin "Rampage" Jackson delivered a knock out blow to Wanderlei Silva.  This was Jackson's opportunity for revenge against the knockout blow that Silva delivered to him back in the Pride days - one of the most brutal knockouts ever seen in MMA fighting.

Later on we watched as the two coaches from the latest season of the ultimate fighter entered the octagon to fight for the Interim Heavyweight Champion title.  This time Nogueira was the favorite after winning over the nation by being a great coach and stand up athlete.  Mir on the other hand had delivered a Ken Shamrock level of coaching and attitude during his stint on the reality TV show.  Still, Mir managed to beat Nogueira with a TKO in the second round, disappointing fans worldwide.

And last, but certainly not least, the much hyped Griffin-Evans fight topped the night off and sent this fan to bed feeling let down and frustrated.  Everyone's favorite, Griffin, show tremendous heart and true sportsmanship, but was no match for Rashad's quick hands.  No one can dispute that Evans is worthy of the title he took last night, but he certainly would have made many fans happier by losing.  It was painful watching Forrest flop on the mat and appear to ragdoll as Evans delivered blow after devastating blow. 

Hopefully 2009 will be a better year for UFC fans and with any luck the UFC will move away from their quest to be pathetic like the WWE.  I won't hold my breathe though.

Being an employee of a large corporation can be trying for a multitude of reasons, especially if you factor in mandatory union membership.  It’s also tough to take a position on unions.  On one hand they use the power in numbers to ensure a fair and adequate working environment.  On the other hand, they can become enormous and corrupt organizations who capitalize on the fears of the many to benefit only a few.

Over the years I have seen some bold and seemingly inhumane moves by the union as they attempt to represent the best interests of the employee.  Most of their work seems focused on breeding fear and hatred towards the employer. 

In my personal line of work, I think I already have good working conditions.  I feel that my pay is adequate and my safety is ensured.  That’s not the case for everybody.  Some people work in awful conditions, and that’s the place where unions are really necessary.  The hardest part though, is when two unlike groups are brought together in the same union.  The expectation is created that everyone must fight for the conditions to be improved as a whole.  Sounds a lot like communism doesn’t it?

It does.

In these tough economic times, why would anyone want to put themselves into a strike position?  Unions should be working double-time to provide solid collective bargaining agreements in the best interests of the employees.  Many people out there are losing jobs as downsizing sweeps the nation.  A strike that lasts 8 or more weeks could easily cause people to lose their homes.  Is that really in the best interest of the employee?

We need to work on some new labor laws to protect employees from the unions.  We need to protect the interests of the hard workers.  If you’re part of a union, think twice before you vote to strike.  You, and many others, could lose much more than you bargained for.

If you’ve read any of my previous musings about the snow, then you might think that I have a negative view towards the white gold.  That couldn’t be any further from the truth.  I do have a dislike for any city that is completely incapable of handling their yearly accumulation, that’s no secret.  However when it comes to snow, I’m a very big fan.  And no, I’m not talking about that failed Canadian rap sensation from the 90’s.

Back to the point of my post, looking outside only leads to a depressing realization that there’s no snow left.  After last week’s incapacitating winter storm in the Niagara Peninsula, it’s hard to believe that I could be seeing the green grass today.  Yet, there it is.

Unseasonably warm temperatures for the past few days, coupled with a heavy rainfall, has created a disappearing act for the snow that even Houdini himself could commend.  It’s tough living in this region sometimes.  Weather like this leads to a lot of mud and muck, trading the traditional pure white winter for a dirty brown season.  I wouldn’t dare own a snowmobile; the two or three opportunities to ride each year couldn’t justify the costs.

As a kid living up north, I never dreamed that I would enjoy the snow.  I used to long for the end of the winter season, when the snow would melt and the warmer temperatures would take away the winter blues.  Standing outside waiting for your school bus in sub-zero temperatures can really seem like corporal punishment when you’re a youngster.  Especially after listening to frostbite warnings on the radio before heading out, noting that frostbite can occur in only minutes to any skin left exposed.

Years later, I miss the frostbite and wind chill warnings.  A lot of it has to do with the stability of the season.  If it’s winter, it should be snow.  I don’t want to deal with snow, melt, snow, melt.  I would gladly trade for consistency.  

In case you aren’t up on the latest news, we’re neck deep in a recession.  People are losing jobs hand over fist.  Companies are losing money, hand over fist.  People just don’t have the money to spend that they used to.  I could spend days writing about the economics of our society, but I'll save that for another day.

No, this time around I want to talk to you about this auto industry bail out business.  Here is the low-down.  If the North American auto industry doesn’t get a cash bailout by the end of the year, companies like General Motors could be closing their doors for good.  The question I pose to you is this:

Is that really a bad thing?

I own a Chevrolet Colorado, which is manufactured by GM.  So, why on earth would I even consider their demise a good thing?  Well, there are plenty of good reasons.  The auto industry is super saturated with high-priced, low-efficiency automobiles.  We have many instances where two car companies, which are subsidiaries of the same parent, produce vehicles of almost identical design. 

Is there really a benefit to this?  Why should I choose a GMC Canyon over a Chevrolet Colorado?  They are essentially the same truck.  There is too much choice out there.  What we need to do is focus on creating economical vehicles.  This isn’t a save the environment post, but saving the environment is never a bad thing.  Vehicles should be more affordable to buy and to operate.  With the rising cost of fuel, we need to find alternative fuel sources.  Cheaper fuel sources.

We also need to bring down the retail cost of the vehicles.  People go into incredible debt to buy today’s automobiles.  It’s nearly impossible to find a car that you can drive off the lot for less than $15,000.

The saddest thing about the fall of the big auto makers here would be the job loses.  My heart goes out to those who are out of work or who potentially could be.  The need for cars hasn’t disappeared though, and as the remaining auto makers regrouped and rebuilt, I wholly believe that the jobs would come back.

The end result would be cheaper, more efficient, better-built automobiles.  Their loss sounds like our win, to me.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has finally figured out that suing tens of thousands of customers isn’t going to bring back CD sales. 

The obvious truth is that CDs are a dying market.  CDs represent an out-dated way of managing music.  The decades old technology has limited storage capacities and is easily damaged.  A simple scratch can ruin most, if not all, of a music disk.  Anyone who has ever experienced this (that should be everyone out there) knows full well that you can’t just walk into the store and get a replacement.  In fact, if didn’t make a backup copy of your CD, then you are out of luck.  You’ll need to repurchase said album.

Digital music doesn’t suffer from such pitfalls.  Many only peddlers of music, such as iTunes, will allow you to re-download music that you have already paid for, in the event that something happens to your copy.  You can also utilize many different mediums with your mp3s.  You could put them on a recordable CD or DVD, to be played in your portable CD player, stereo, or even your automobile.  You can also load them onto your favorite mp3 player and experience the endless possibilities that become available.

With all that being said, it’s finally become clear to the RIAA that suing people isn’t saving CD sales.  The new tactic is going to take it to a new level.

The RIAA has managed to convince Internet Service Providers (ISP) to become the police, judge, jury, and executioner of would be music sharers.  Working with ISPs, they are implementing a three-strikes policy to manage their perceived violations. 

Sharers can expect to get three warnings from their ISP before their Internet service is terminated. 

No legal fees, no court, no more expenses.  The RIAA is ultimately shifting the responsibility to another body in what appears to be an attempt to lighten the workload. 

While the punishment is certainly more appealing than jail time, the lack of a legal basis opens the floodgates for wrongful accusation litigation.  It would seem that the ISPs will need to increase their legal budgets to compensate for the influx.

Yesterday, southern Ontario was hit with it’s first real blast of winter.  According to the weather man, Mother Nature dumped 20 centimeters of the white gold on us.  After being out there shoveling, I would wager to say that it was more like a foot and a half (45 centimeters).

Regardless of the actual amount, I’m sure you can imagine that it was a fair amount.

Last year I was driving a 2005 Saturn Ion quad coupe.  It had a sweet set of low profile tires which made the car look great and offered significant traction of dry summer roads.  When it snowed though, that was another story.  I actually got stuck on my own street a number of times last year.  I’m pretty sure I even got stuck 4 times in the same day on the same street.

Not this year.

This year I got myself a 2007 Chevrolet Colorado Quad Cab.  As an added bonus, it’s got a z714x4 package.  I never could have imagined the benefit that 4 wheel drive delivers.  I’ve used the 4 wheel low gear a few times, mostly for fun and off-road type excursions. 

All of the snow that I mentioned earlier mostly accumulated between 8am and 4pm yesterday.  I went to work as normal and watched out the window as the snow just kept coming.  At noon, my wife called to tell me that the kids’ school had phoned and advised that the school was closed.  That meant we had to go get them and we both work about 25 – 30 minutes from the school. 

No problem.  I got into the truck and headed out of the parking garage onto the relatively unplowed streets.  I immediately sensed that I needed to engage the 4 wheel drive as the back end of the truck slipped and slid in the deep, slushy snow.  I headed to the highway and then to my wife’s work to pick her up.  Then we headed to get the kids.  Plowed roads, unplowed roads, no problem.

The truck barreled through snow banks and handled the treacherous roads with ease.  Often passing unlucky drivers who were stuck in the wintery mess.  Even on my street I saw two trucks and three different cars stuck in the snow.  I’m pretty sure that I took the truck through the worst of it and giggled as I zipped along.

Aside from the 4 wheel drive, all-terrain tires, and general lack of fear, there was one other reason that the truck handled so beautifully.  I have a few hundred pounds of interlocking patio bricks in the box of the truck.  My box liner has slots in it that allow it to be segregated with 2x10 boards.  This allows me to keep the bricks in the back 18 inches of the truck.  Perfect for added traction!

I’ve been dealing with a chronically intermittent back problem for a number of years now.  In fact, I think that this winter will mark the 13th year.  The problem generally occurs in the lower portion of my spine, with an average of 8-12 months between flare ups.  That being said, the last few weeks have been particularly excruciating. 

This time around, I was in a staff meeting in a typical board room for approximately 30 minutes.  As I got up to leave the meeting, I began to feel the incredibly painful stab that normally comes with the onset of a flare up.  I could barely get upright.

Before I tell you more about the current story, let me take you back to the beginning.  It was a wonderfully snowy December day.  The snow was that light, fluffy kind that is a breeze to shovel.  There was about two or three inches on the driveway, and at the age of 17, I was helping my mother shovel our driveway.  I’d like to emphasize the fact that the snow was very light, not much work at all.

I was nearly done shoveling when an old man came walking down the street.  I recognized him from two doors down, however I didn’t know his name and had never spoken to him before.  He was shouting something about shoveling, so I directed my attention towards him.  He was telling me to stop shoveling the way I was.  He proceeded to ask me if I wanted to ruin my back.  At one point, he shouted “Do you want to look like this?”, and raised the back of his jacket up to show hundreds of scars that adorned his back. i

I couldn’t tell if they were from surgeries or torture.  Either way, it freaked me out.  What happened next had the makings of black magic, voodoo, and witchcraft. 

I decided that the old man was delirious and I was going to escape his rant by heading inside. As I turned to walk away from this crazy old man, I pivoted into a 180 degree turn.  That’s when it happened.  For the first time in my life, I felt a crippling sensation in my lower back.  I could barely move.

Never had I endured pain of this intensity.  For three days I was bed-ridden.  It was at this point that I realized the old man had put a curse on me.  Every subsequent recurrence of the pain, only served to remind me that the hex is still surrounding me.

Back to current day.  I have been to many doctors who have given me many pills.  I’ve had x-rays and examinations.  Nothing every solves the problem, at best I find some temporary relief.  Nothing in particular seems to be the cause of a flare up, in fact it almost seems random.

This time around I decided to visit a witch doctor (chiropractor) to look for some new options.  Yesterday I had my first go at the decompression table, a device that literally stretches and compresses your spine.  The idea is that it creates a vacuum between your vertebrae and draws out the material that is pinching or pressing on the nerve that is bringing the pain. 

Despite my description, the device is quite relaxing and I felt no pain as it separate a good five inches.  I have three more appointments next week, so hopefully the treatment will show some signs of progress in the near future.  I’ll keep you posted.

I can’t believe how awesome this season of Dexter is!  I could never have imagined the plot twists that the show has taken – and not just this season, but the previous two as well.  If you don’t watch this television show already, I would strongly encourage you to check it out.

Note:  Does contain violence, course language, nudity, and plenty of blood.  Viewer discretion is advised.

In case you haven’t been following Dexter since the beginning, let me bring you up to speed.  The first season spends a great deal of time on character building.  You meet Dexter, the 30-something blood spatter analyst with the Miami Metro Police Department, and the star of the show.  He’s a bit of a serial killer.

He’s the good guy though.  Did I just say that? 

I did.  He lives by a code and only murders those who deserve it.  Child molesters, rapists, and murders that the system had failed to incarcerate.  They seemingly got away with their crimes, but Dexter gives the victims the justice they deserve.

In that first season we also met a host of other regulars.  There’s Dexter’s loving yet rough around the edges, crass sister, Deb.  She’s one of Miami Metro’s un-finest.  We met the memory of Dexter’s adopted father, Harry, who is Deb’s actual father.  He was the only one who ever knew Dexter’s secret.  He taught him how to refine his killing skills, and how to not get caught.  Pretty unethical for a police officer.

Harry actually found Dexter in a pool of blood inside of a shipping container.  As a very young boy, Dexter watched as his mother was cut into pieces with a chainsaw, by some very unfriendly dealers.  Dexter’s brother, also a youngin, was at the scene as well.  Harry didn’t take him though. He grew up to be a different kind of serial killer, and became the focus of the first season of the show. 

A few other regulars include Miami Metro staffers Vince the perverse forensics guy, the hard a***and always suspicious Detective Doakes, his partner and previous Captain LaGuerta, and Angel Batista – a good detective with some bad habits.

If that’s not enough to get you hooked, you can read more on the Dexter Wikipedia page.

The show airs Sundays at 10:00pm EST on Showcase.  

If you’re not familiar with the term “domain squatter”, it’s basically a person (or company) that purchases Internet domain names in an effort to sell them for profit.  Squatters will typically look for sites that are likely to become of interest to somebody at some point in time.  Sometimes, they will watch for domains that are about to expire in the hope that they can snag the rights to a currently popular domain.

The case in point that got me thinking about this topic again is in regards to the squatting of GeorgeWBushLibrary.com managed by Yuma Solutions.  The squatters made an instant profit of $34,990 by simply waiting for the domain to expire, purchasing it, then promptly selling it back to Yuma.  That’s a lot of money to make in a short period of time. 

Yuma has been a long time contractor for the Bush family and had accidentally let the domain registration expire.  It’s that easy.  Now Yuma will have to take the financial hit, since it was their negligence that caused it to expire in the first place.

Now the question on everyone’s mind is - “Who is this mystery squatter?”.  None other than Raleigh, North Carolina’s own Illuminati Karate – another web design firm.

Previous cases of Internet domain name squatting include celebrities and organizations such as Madonna, Kevin Spacey, Bruce Springsteen, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the White House.

Not all have been successful with recovering their domains, despite anti-squatting laws and U.N. intervention.  It would seem as though the Internet is a much tougher animal to police than most will admit to.  Cybersquatting is just one item in a laundry list of Internet related crimes that has yet to be both classified and managed.

At the moment, squatting is primarily just an ethical injustice. 

I live in a side split home, which ultimately means I have four levels.  On the left side of the split there is a top and a bottom floor.  The top floor is bedrooms and a bathroom, the bottom floor is the rec room and bar area.  One thing that I have noticed since we moved in (2 years ago) is that the floor in the master bedroom is always really cold in the winter.  Well, not the whole floor, just a foot or two that meets the outer wall on the front side of the house.

The thing with side-splits is that they often have an overhang underneath the highest floor.  In my case, the over hang is 19" deep.  That means that 19" of my bedroom floor is actually exposed to the outside air, as opposed to the rest of the floor, which sits on top of the rec room.

My rec room has a drop ceiling, so a few days ago I decided to take out one of the ceiling panels and see why the space that makes up the overhang was cold.  What I found was a little disturbing.  The joists run straight out, so they are easy to access.  Most of the cold area contained only a minimal amount of that pink fibreglass insulation and plenty of air.  There was also Styrofoam duct taped to the opening to help keep cold air from flowing into the rec room.

If none of that sounds like it's a good idea, it's because it's not a good idea.

Air and moisture have been able to accumulate of in this space for a long time.  The fix isn't that tough either.  I went down to the local Home Depot and bought a bale of Roxul Flexibat (R14) for about $30.  I like using the Flexibatt because it's not as itchy as the fibreglass stuff.  It's fire-retardant and mice won't chew through it.  I also bought some heavy plastic and some Tuck Tape.  Tuck Tape is that red tape that bonds any two unlike surfaces.  It's great for sealing the gap between plastic and wood.  It's very important that you create an adequate vapor barrier, to prevent mold and mildew. 

Once you have all the right stuff, the task is very easy.  I lined the interior walls around the overhang space with plastic and taped it so that there was a good seal.  Then I measured the area and filled it with the Flexibatt.  Last, but not least, I finished covering the opening with plastic, to finish the vapor barrier.  Now my bedroom floor feels much warmer.

The answer to that question would likely be - " far away from the awful movie that takes the same name".

A couple of nights ago we watch the Morgan Spurlock much-hyped documentary about his quest to find the most well-known criminal in the world today.  It's basically a two hour movie about killing time and avoiding his pregnant wife. 

Spurlock starts the movie by explaining that he is an expectant father and that he's been really thinking about how awful the world is.  He talks about all of the things that make the world bad, then focuses in on Osama Bin Laden.  He seems to think that if he finds Bin Laden, the world will magically become a better place.  His travels take him to places like Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.  In each location he attempts to interview the locals just to get there thoughts on Bin Laden an where he might be.

This is where it begins to fall apart.  Most of the people that he interviews are foreign.  Many of them do not speak a word of English and Spurlock does little, if nothing, to compensate for that.  There are no sub-titles, there are no voice-overs.  There is Morgan asking question in English and his interviewee responding in their native tongue.  The viewer is often left wondering what the interviewee had to say.

Meanwhile, his very pregnant wife is getting worried about his well-being.  They often call each other on the phone and express how much they miss each other.  He was gone for about 8 months, so he missed most of the pregnancy.  His quest eventually brings him to the Tribal areas of Pakistan, where a warning sign indicates that outsiders will be punished with death.  On that note, he turns around and decides to call it quits.  Sissy.

Spurlock ultimately avoided a good 8 months of his wife's pregnancy and thus spared himself from some mental anguish.  He arrived home just in time to deliver his baby boy. 

The movie really had no purpose and didn't open our eyes to any new truths.  His previous movie, Super Size Me, was a great success - however Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden was a complete and utter failure.  Thanks for nothing.

Nope, they're not flying anywhere.  I'm talking about the kind of runway where super-models strut, in only the latest and greatest fashions.

It would seem that Microsoft is looking to generate extra revenue in a relatively disconnected place, clothing.  While I don't expect the mighty M$ to become a clothing giant in the likeness of Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren, I do expect to see geeks everywhere sporting these duds.  These new and not-so-trendy fashions are meant to evoke the '80s, a seminal time in the history of PCs.  In the new t-shirt line, we can expect to see retro MS-DOS fonts and possibly a mug shot of a young bill gates. 

These shirts will be a huge success in the geek community, but the rest of the general population may not be as interested.  With dress code policies in effect at most major corporations, you'll have to wear these bad boys underneath your regular button down shirt.  I guess it will be a little like Clark Kent wearing his unitard underneath is mild mannered reporter outfit.  You'll be ready to transform into geek form whenever ID10T strikes.  If using a dirty old phone booth, remember to change safely - always bring protection.

These shirts will likely be a big hit on the college and university scene, where virtually any fashion is somehow acceptable.  Rumor has it that Microsoft may be planning a line of M$ underoos - but only for the most hardcore of fans.  Maybe they could get on the thong Speedo bandwagon and really draw in the attention of gawkers.  :)

I suspect that I'll eventually own the entire collection.  Now I just need an RTFM shirt and I'll be set for life.

The shirts are expected to hit select stores on Dec 15.

Recently I was given the opportunity to replace my aged and ailing humidifier.  It was one of those cartridge ones that attaches to the duct work by the furnace.  The new one, which was given to me, was of similar style, however it was brand spanking new.  A savings of approximately $200.  I didn't realize it at the time, but replacing the old humidifier would not be an easy task.  Here are some of the problem areas and how I over came them.

1.  The hole in the duct work for the old humidifier was much bigger than the new one. 

This was a relatively easy fix though.  I got my hands on some sheet metal (the same kind as the duct work) and made a patch to cover the area that the new humidifier did not.  You can simply use self-tapping screws to mount the patch to the existing duct, however make sure that your patch is big enough to extend a few inches past the hole - you'll need the extra overlap to secure the 2 pieces of metal together.  Once the patch is screwed in place, use aluminium duct tape (the shiny silver stuff, not traditional duct tape) to cover the outer edges of the patch to ensure that no air can leak out.

2.  The old humidifier had a transformer that was wired right to the furnace, the new one has a transformer that plugs into the wall.

This wasn't as easy to deal with as the last problem.  If you are not skilled or trained in working with electricity, the only advice I can give you is to call an electrician.  Luckily, I happen to be handy with electricity.  I simply installed a new plug close to the humidifier.  Another option could be to wire your new humidifier to the old transformer, however you should have a licenced professional inspect it for you to ensure compatibility.  In my case, the new humidifier had a few extra pieces in the electrical configuration that made using existing equipment impossible.

3.  The old humidifier was connected to the water line via one of those clamp on punch connectors, the kind that you just clamp to the pipe and screw in until it pierces the copper pipe, should I reuse that?

No.  Simply put.  These connectors are generally only good for a one time hook up.  Anything more than that and you will probably have leaks.  I know this first hand because I tried to reuse it.  Remember, if you are not handy with plumbing, don't try this at home.  I had to go back and re-do the plumbing after the leak started.  This time I had the only handyman with plumber skills that I know, my dad, to come and help me out.  We cut out a 1.5 inch section of copper pipe where the old connector had created a hole.  We did this after we turned the water off and drained the lines.  Then we soldered in a new T shaped connector.  On the new T connection, we then soldered a valve that is soldered on one end and utilizes a compression fitting  on the other end (the one that goes to the humidifier).  Now I can turn the water on or off to the humidifier whenever I need to.  I can also use the valve to decrease the flow of water, this way I don't blow a seal in the humidifier with too much water pressure.

I also opted to use copper tubing, rather than the plastic tubing that was provided.  Copper is way less likely to rupture and leave you flooded.

Hopefully you'll find some of this useful when you do your next humidifier replacement.

Even with the plight of economic downturn, people are still managing to shop 'til they drop... dead... literally.

A Wal-Mart employee in Long Island (NJ) had his life come to an abrupt end on Friday as an out of control mob smashed through the front door of the well-known department store chain.  This incident occurred on a day that Americans refer to as "Black Friday", a day in which huge sales rival the more popular Canadian Boxing Day. 

The story doesn't end there, this tragedy not only killed the 34 year old employee, it also saw four other shoppers injured - including a woman who was eight months pregnant.  I referred to the tragedy killing a human being and injuring others, but the truth is that the tragedy is only the result.  It was other human beings who all but murdered another, just to get a discount on some merchandise.  How is it that mob mentality kicks in and nobody - not one person - stops to realize how foolish they have acted and come to the aid of the injured.  It's sickening.  It's brutal.

Some employees actually climbed vending machines to escape, as 200 raging animals bum-rushed the retail store.  The mob actually took the hinges off of the door, that's how bad it became.  The employee who lost his life was gasping for air as shoppers continued to surge into the store after it's 5 am opening.  Can you believe this?  I had trouble accepting it.  The worker officially died of a heart attack, brought on by the trampling he received.  Every one of those shoppers has his blood on their hands. 

It is estimated that 2,000 people were gathered outside the store in the predawn darkness, waiting for the doors to open.  All of them itching to spend their cash.  They began to chant "push the doors in" and started to press on the glass as opening time drew closer.  The employees tried to form a human chain to slow the savages down, but in the end it was in vein.  A life was lost and a lesson should have been learned, but had it?

The photo shows the mob just moments before the doors opened, courtesy of NY Daily News.

In a move that is sure to anger die-hard, original UFC fans, the fighting-turned-marketing organization has once again disgraced itself.  This time it's about a video game.

UFC Undisputed 2009, due to be released early next year, is expected to be the fighting game of the year.  Unfortunately, the UFC has once again decided that the rights of their fighters only gets in the way of the cold, hard earnings.  This week the UFC is on the outs with popular fighters Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch after the fighters refused to sign away their likeness rights for life.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Life.  Not only would the fighters no longer own their own likeness, but their families wouldn't receive a penny in the event of their death.

With the disagreement heating up to the point where the company decided to cut Fitch, my faith in the UFC as an organization slowly dwindles.  As expected, it was Dana White, the self-embarrassing president of the UFC, who decided to let Fitch go.  It would seem that Mr. White's temper is in need of some restraint, maybe he can afford anger management classes with the pennies he steals from the real stars of the UFC - the fighters.  The only person that can make themselves look like a bigger idiot on nation TV would be George W. himself.

After White took 24 hours to calm himself down, Fitch was back with the UFC and has now signed a contract that will allow his likeness to be used in the game.  The details of his contract are still unknown.  At this time Koscheck is still unsigned and is planning to avoid the mess until after his upcoming fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

Sadly, if a fighter wants to be a star, it would seem they have to sell their soul to Dana White.

Following up on my last post, after Monster Jam last night we decided to stay at the Sheraton right next door to Copps Coliseum.  This hotel was a big disappointment.  Very big disappointment. 

While we were checking in, a homeless person came into the lobby and asked us for help.  The hotel staff promptly advised this person to leave, apparently this is a regular occurrence with this individual.  That was our first taste of this hotel's level of quality.  As a saving grace, this Sheraton is attached to the Jackson Square mall, so there is access to plenty of shops and restaurants within walking distance and no need for a coat.  It's also about 30 seconds down the road from Copps, so it's convenient if there is an event you are attending.

We took the kids down to the pool as soon as we checked in and we were less than impressed.  The pool was a decent size and of moderately decent temperature.  The kids absolutely loved it.  Not being a hotel pool person, I opted for the hottub instead.  It seemed rather small and appeared to be a residential unit that was converted for commercial use.  The tub itself was littered with epoxy patches and had definitely seen better days.  The handrail was wobbly and the temperature was well below the posted 103 degrees Fahrenheit.  There is also a fantastic view of a meeting room, whose glass wall overlooks the pool area.  Fortunately, the kids and I aren't modest.  We'll swim in front of anybody.  The change rooms were little more than glorified bathrooms.

The elevators in this hotel seemed to take forever to get to whichever floor we called them from, often waiting several minutes for one of the three to arrive.  After getting back from Monster Jam, we took the kids for a swim, then brought them up for bed.  They had trouble getting to sleep because half of the floor we were on had been rented out to what appeared to be high school kids who were determined to have a party.  Often times through the evening and night they could be found cursing and yelling in the hallway.  At one point security came to speak to them, but the noise came back minutes after security had left.

A strange knock at my door around midnight turned out to be an older gentleman who clearly had the wrong room.

To top it off, at 11:15pm I called down for room service, as the menu had a late night 11pm - 1am section.  I was advised that they no longer do this and were too lazy to update the menus in the guest rooms.  If I wanted, I could be referred to a pizza place, but that was that.  Angrily, I declined and decided to try my hand at sleeping.  Terrible night's sleep due to the partying kids and the dryness of the air in the room.  Don't get me wrong, I was that age once and I am not against a good party.  Just pick you venue better, and don't get drunk and curse when their are little kids around.  I was quite happy to check out of this sub-par, poorly managed hotel in the morning.

That said, the kids enjoyed their first ever hotel stay, but from now on I'll be sticking with the Marriott.

Hey race fans!  Last night we had the dubious honour of attending Monster Jam at Copps Colosseum in Hamilton, Ontario.  It was pretty d***good, despite the small venue.  After seeing Monster Jam at the Rogers Centre (SkyDome) last year, Copps looks like the miniature version.  The complete course was the size of the ice pad that the Bulldogs normally play on.  None the less, we were in the first row and pretty much dead center in the action.

This is the first time that we decided to bring the wee ones and they had a blast!  We brought some ear plugs for them, the kind you roll up and stick in your ears, and they worked pretty good.  I had a pair in and it was incredible to observe how much white noise is cut out - you could still hear the trucks and announcer just fine.  We started off the night by getting the kids some checkered flags and some little pink GraveDigger t-shirts.  I picked up a GraveDigger toque, to make up for the one I couldn't get last time.

Once we got seated, the kids weren't sure what to expect.  The looks on their faces said it all though, as soon as the trucks came out.  GraveDigger, AfterShock, Batman, Maniac and Jurrassic Attack were in attendance.  The Batman truck wowed them with the flames shooting out of the back, but the topper for the evening was that Jurassic Attack was driven by a woman, Kristy Edge.  Being little girls, the kids are always excited when a woman is involved in primarily male dominated sports.  She did great too, despite some early truck problems.

The Quad Wars racers were out as usual, pitting team Toronto against team Hamilton.  They like to put on a good show, and there was at least one good flip.  However, the highlight of the night was the three motocross racers who dominated the intermission show.  These guys were doing crazy 65 foot jumps, one after another, for a good 20 minutes.  Each jump had a driver doing a handstand, or some other crazy trick on their bike.  The final jump included a complete flip of the bike with a near perfect landing.  Very entertaining - great job guys!

I'd say the kids were super impressed and GraveDigger cleaned up, making this Monster Jam a worthwhile event.  Can't wait for the next one in January!

As you probably already know, I love to rant about the price of gasoline.  It was quite high for some time and it seemed as though there would be no relief in sight.  Then it happened.  Gas prices started a rapid decline that led me to fill my tank at $0.79 per litre today.  I should be happy, right?  By my own account, this is exactly the relief I was hoping for.  For months I was longing for a break in the price.  Well, now I have it - but I'm a little bit scared.

Why?  Because something isn't right.

Gas prices haven't been this low in a couple of years and the continual decline is pushing me towards paranoia.  Why have the prices come down so low?  Supply and demand isn't adding up for me.  Consumers continue to consume as much gas as before, so there's no let up in the demand.  OPEC has decreased the production of crude oil by 1,000,000 barrels a day, so the supply has gone down, therefore the cost should go up.  Right?  I'm no economics major, but I do get the basic principles - something isn't quite right.

Gas is one of those things that has systematically risen in price for as long as it has been consumed.  I remember when I got my first car in 1996 and gas was $0.54 per litre.  That is less than half of the $1.34 per litre that fuel prices hit this summer. 

With the economy collapsing around us, maybe this is a sign of sorts.  One more warning that things are about to change for the worse?  Who knows.  For me, I'll shut up and take my cheap gas while I still can.  Who knows when it will pull an about face and skyrocket again.

Personally, I'm a big fan of winter.  I love the snow.  I love to drive in it, I love to play in it, and I just can't wait to bust out my snowblower for the season.  This year I have made a personal commitment to not destroying the neighbour's fence with it.  The leaves have pretty much all fallen and the rain should soon turn to ice.  This year I have an extra special reason for wanting it to get here.  I bought a 4-wheel drive Chevy Colorado and I can't wait to test it against our poor plowing practices.  Last year, I got stuck a number of times with my Saturn Ion, but this year I will emerge victorious!

The week, my wife had us put up the Christmas tree and all the other decorations.  The outside lights are up and the house is really starting to look the part.  Now we just have to roll into this commercial holiday and start buying up the gifts.  My goal is to do better than last year and get all the gifts done before the final weekend before the big day.  Last year I had some trouble with that.

The kids are starting to get revved up about the holiday.  They repeatedly ask how many more days till Christmas and often tell us about all of the wonderful gifts they should be receiving.  It's kinda cute.  Yesterday they were asking about getting some more magical reindeer dust, since we ran out last year. 

I just can't wait to get out there and build snow forts with them, and take them tobogganing!  Playing in the snow is incredible fun for the whole family.  The snowblower is exceptionally helpful for building snow forts, just create a big pile and dig out the middle!  Hurry up winter!

If you know a thing or two about the Xbox 360, then you would probably tell me that I can have DivX on my console.  In fact, an update published by Microsoft in the Fall of 2007 had specific provisions to allow DivX playback on the Xbox 360.  Now you are wondering what I am complaining about, right?  Well, let me break it down for you.

I currently have an HTPC (home theatre pc), running Vista Media Center, that controls my entertainment centre.  All of the tv that we was is basically DivX movie files that have been PVR'd at some point in time.  When I got my Xbox 360, I wanted to set it up as a Media Center Extender so that I could create additional playback scenarios within my home.  Xbox has some pretty neat and easy to use functionality to configure it as an extender.  Within about 20 minutes I had it up and running and I could see my network storage (provided by FreeNAS).  When I located a previously recorded television show, and selected it for playback, I received the greatest letdown of the week.

I was informed that a codec could not be acquired and the tv show would not play.

To test out a theory, I went back to the Xbox dashboard and setup a connection to my file share.  I then selected the same file for playback.  Low and behold, it started to play.  Now this may just be the geeky side of my coming out, but wouldn't it make good business sense to use the same player and protocols anytime a movie file is played on the Xbox?  Not to mention the fact that it would have been easier and taken less development time.

Back to the issue at hand, I now sit with my 360 still being just a console and the extended functionality still leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.  In this day and age, I expect better from companies like Microsoft.  You're extending your own products, make them work.

So it would seem that I was right in my earlier posts about Yahoo being a bad purchase decision for Microsoft.  I'm glad that deal never went through.  Yahoo would have been a dead weight and would have only degraded Microsoft's already craptastic search engine.  The story gets worse though...  much worse.

Back when Microsoft laid their offer on the table, they were offering Yahoo somewhere around $32 per share.  Yahoo felt this was an insult and responded by saying that they felt their company was worth $48 per share.  Well, I am happy to announce that as of yesterday, Yahoo stock prices had dropped into the $9 per share range.  $9 ??

Yep. 

The truly horrific part of this scheme is actually that the embattled search engine company has actually lost around $31 billion in shareholder value since that initial offer from the mighty M$.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but it's obvious that Yahoo should have jumped on that offer and saved their sorry hides.  Now it's time to face the music.  We're heading into a great depression and the economic downturn is systematically collapsing dot com companies. 

It's been nearly over five years since Yahoo stocks have seen prices this low, but the worst is yet to come.  If and when the Yahoo stocks hit the $5 mark, it could pretty much all be over.  According to CNET News "A number of institutional investors, such as pension funds, asset managers, and endowments have policies that require them to discard stocks that fall below $5".  That means that once it hits that mark, the price's fall will greatly accelerate.  The last time the prices were $5 was in October of 2002.

Goodbye Yahoo, it was nice knowing you.  Maybe someday I can Google you and get a link to the Wayback Machine.

Does anyone else watch this show?  I absolutely love it.  I'm addicted and can't get enough.  The premise alone rocks me.  A drug dealer soccer mom.  How cool is that?  I never quite know how to take the show.  Is it a comedy, or a drama, or what?  I can say this much - it's brilliant.

I'm not sure why or when I started watching the show, but my wife and I simply love it.  We're starting to watch the 4th season now and, like ever season before it, they've taken it to the next level. 

Of you don't already watch it, here is the synopsis:

A typical suburban family suffers the loss of their primary bread winner and father figure.  The wife starts selling a little bit of marijuana to help make ends meet in this tragic time.  Before you know it, she is growing big and fast.  She eventually has employees and starts making deals with gangsters, all while trying to manage a household.  The show stars Mary-Louise Parker as mother/dealer - Nancy Botwin.  SNL's Kevin Nealon makes an excellent addition to the show as councilman Doug,  a pot smoking corrupt politician/account who has his hands in everything that is dirty.  The rest of the cast is also brilliant and the show would fail without all of them connecting so incredibly well.

The clever storyline tackles all kinds of familiar social issues.  Everything is fair game.  From bored housewives to alcoholics to stereotypical racism, no stone is left unturned.  The writers do a tremendously good job at making you associate with the characters and bond with them, yet still keeping a slapstick air of humour about it.  Five stars.

I can't do the show any justice simply by writing about it, you have to see it and judge for yourself.  You can read more about Weeds on IMDB.

The good news is that the update only affects AVG 8 products running on Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and French versions of Windows XP. 

AVG has long been emerging as a leader in the home PC antivirus market, with their free product protecting millions of users world wide.  Recently, the Czech-based company has suffered from some embarrassing setbacks.  In October, an AVG update detected some ZoneAlarm firewall files as a virus and in July the company had to reconfigure its Linkscanner tool when site operators started to complain about an increase in traffic due to the tool's proactive scanning techniques.

Still, users should not begin to panic about the AVG product.  The company may have made a couple of mistakes, but their software protects millions of users from millions of threats and at little to no charge for the end-user.  AVG 8 continues to be the best performing and widely supported free antivirus program on the market today. 

AVG Free can protect you from viruses, spyware, adware, and identity-theft.  The number of threats out there grows everyday and if you don't have protection on your PC, you are putting yourself at risk.  If you don't already have a virus scanner, I would encourage you to download a copy today.

The downside is in the companies that produce them.  My GPS came with my car.  It's not built in, in fact, it's a Magellan Maestro 3210.  It was a freebie from General Motors for my purchase of a Chevy Colorado this summer.  As an aside, I love my truck.  That being said, the maps in the GPS are limited to Canada only for some strange reason.  To make matters worse, they are from the first quarter of 2007.  That means that they were a year and a half outdated when I received it. 

Now you can argue that what is free should not be complained about, but indeed these products are still for sale.  A while back, I visited the Magellan website in order to check for updates and I was very happy to see that an update was expected sometime in 2008. 

Well, yesterday I checked out their site again and saw that an update is now available!  I can now have the latest and greatest maps to help me navigate the world.  This update is a steal at only $79.99.  What?!?  They want me to spend $80 to have their inferior product updated?  That's half the cost of a new device.  We're not talking about new features here, just updated maps to support a product that millions of people have purchased. 

I wish Microsoft made a GPS dash unit.  They do have a USB GPS device that works with a laptop and Microsoft Streets and Trips, but that is cumbersome for the dash of the truck.  What's so great about their product though that would make me want them to compete with the in-dash market?  Quarterly construction updates.  Every three months, Microsoft releases a map update through Windows Update that includes road changes and construction information and is available free of charge.

That's the way it should be.  New products can be released every couple of years with new features and better operating systems, but the content (i.e. the maps) should be updated at least every quarter so that users get the best value for their money.  No need to rip people off.  I won't be buying any Magellan GPS products again until they fix their business model.

Update:  While finalizing this post I discovered that Microsoft is indeed entering the portable navigation market by introducing a new operating system that targets GPS units.  It's called Microsoft Windows Embedded NavReady 2009.  It's currently expected for the 2008 holiday season.  More to come on that...

Ok.  About 2 weeks ago I scored an XBox 360.  It's the first video game console I have owned since Nintendo 64 and I am totally and utterly addicted to it.  A grown man addicted to video games?  It's true.  All of it.

I've been somewhat of a game fan for most of my life.  I had an Atari 2600 growing up and I vividly remember the Christmas morning where I found a Nintendo Entertainment System under the tree.  It was the action set that included Duck Hunt.  I hated duck hunt with a passion, but I loved Super Mario Bros.  Eventually I upgraded to a Super Nintendo.  That rocked my world.  My friends and I spent a lot of time in front of the SNES.  We had the Super Scope 6 - remember?  It was that giant shoulder mounted bazooka type thing. 

It was during the SNES years that I got robbed and someone stole it.  I was devastated, however the insurance replaced it with a Nintendo 64.  I was over-joyed, but found a lack of games that could hold my interest for this platform.   It sat on the shelf for a good number of years before I dusted it off for the little ones to mess around with. 

Then it happened.  A few months back I was visiting an old friend from childhood and we found ourselves playing drunken Playstation 3 at all hours of the morning.  I was renewed.  I had to get a new console.  The choice was tough, but in the end, XBox 360 prevailed and my wife so graciously acquired one for my birthday.  :)  Thanks hun.

I have been racking up incredible amounts of time on both Need for Speed: Pro Street and Grand Theft Auto 4.  Both games are very addictive!

• Windows 9x - Version 4
• Windows XP - Version 5
• Windows Vista - Version 6

While the next smash hit from M$ won't have a catchy name, simplicity will prove to have its virtues.

While the official beta version of Windows 7 isn't slated to be available until spring 2009, 32-bit and 64-bit pre-beta versions are already flooding peer-to-peer networks.  BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and MiniNova are hosting multiple downloads of the pre-beta versions.  Don't get too excited though, many of the downloads are the latest stable release given out at the Professional Developer Conference (PDC), and not the latest and greatest.

It's interesting to note that rather than being greeted by the Vista Welcome Center, users are now greeted with a Windows Live sign-in window.  It appears Microsoft is planning to increase the integration of the Live product family into the new OS.  Windows 7 will also feature support for multitouch input and a new taskbar that makes managing multiple open windows a breeze.

I think the best news about the new design is the cleanup of the annoying User Account Control feature from Vista. 

Are you sure you want to do this?  You have to be an administrator to do this.  This requires elevated permissions to do this.  Last chance to back out... 

Now users will be able to easily change how often the system warns them of changes being made to their PC.

I personally can't wait to see the product take shape as the countdown to the official release begins.

If you recall, John's Background Switcher is a utility that periodically changes your desktop wallpaper, or in my case, allows me to display different images on each display of a multi-monitor setup.  It's very simple to use and really creates great value for anyone who strays away from the default background from the operating system.

So What's new in version 3.6?  Glad you asked.  From the documentation provided with the application:

The main big new feature for 3.6 is RSS feed support. Any photo site that support RSS feeds (look out for the feed icon picture right) can now be used as a photo source for JBS. Popular sites like DeviantArt, Photobucket and Zooomr (to name a few) expose RSS feeds so there's no excuse for not using your favourite pictures on your desktop!

There are also a host of other bug fixes and some much-requested features like being able to never show a picture you don't like again, choose a picture to always use as the background in a snapshot scrapbook and shuffle photos in 'Pictures' mode so you get to see them all.

It's also worthwhile to note that JBS integrates with Facebook to pull down the latest and greatest photos of your friends, family, and you.  There is also a support forum, in case you run into any challenges that can't be readily solved.

Head on over to John's Adventures and read more about this great utility - or better yet, download your own copy.

I've been a fan of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) for some time now.  In fact, since the beginning.  My friends and I would pool our money and order the pay-per-view event and watch the greats, like Royce Gracie, dominate the tournament.  Back then it was tough.  There were no weight classes, no holds barred.  Just plain skill, endurance, and stamina.  You had to fight four times in one night, just to win the $50,000 prize pot.  Nowadays fighters earn six figure contracts just to fight four times a year.  There is no more tournament.  The UFC is trying to turn itself into the WWE now.  It's all about the drama.  The fighters have to invest in long term strategies if they want a shot at the champion belt for their weight class. 

It kinda disgusts me.  Dana White, while boasting true entrepreneurial genius, is an idiot.  He's taking the best part about the UFC and trading it in for a mainstream market.  Twice a year the Ultimate Fighter airs on Spike TV and lets would-be fighters compete for a contract in the UFC.  More often than not the group is a pride of drunken trailer trash and anger management issues.  These guys aren't athletes, they're jackasses. 

Last night I watched UFC 90, just to see Patrick Cote compete against Anderson SIlva.  Silva is widely regarded as the greatest mixed martial arts athlete in the world.  For two, five minute rounds he displayed none of that.  He danced around the octagon, waved his hands around like an angry swarm of bees and did little to injure his opponent.  Cote fought hard, as was expected, but his efforts did little to take out the Spider.  Then it happened.  Cote dropped to his needs as the world watch his knee pop out.  Silva had nothing to do with it.  It was a disappointment to say the least.  The handed Silva a TKO (technical knock out), and that was that.  The problem is that, technically, he knocked out no one. 

It saddens me that this is the state of the UFC today and if the drama gets any worse, I'll have to find a new underground fighting championship to peak my interests.

One can only assume that this is a very easy exploit, considering the move by Microsoft to release outside of their standard monthly cycle.  The patch is being pushed down via Microsoft Update.

The Executive Summary from the bulletin outlines:

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Server service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this vulnerability could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.

This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and rated Important for all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way that the Server service handles RPC requests. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

Recommendation. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately.

Promise me that if you care about the security of your systems, you'll patch this right away! 

CNET offers some additional defensive computing advice to Windows users in their article Time to patch Windows again, ASAP.  They suggest disabling services that you don't need to lower the attach surface area of your system, in addition to properly configuring your firewalls.

My original goal for setting up the network was to play with setting up the Xbox as a media extender, and in doing so I discovered that my Xbox needed some upgrades.  Most of the content that I view with my media centre PC is DIVX/XVID encoded videos and that doesn't play very nicely with the Xbox.  There is hope though.  After doing some research, I discovered that the latest updates for the Xbox contain DIVX/XVID codecs.  Sweet.

Maybe not.  I must have spent an hour in the console interface trying to figure out how to download updates.  After some Googling, I finally figured out that you need to connect to Xbox Live to make this happen.  No problem.  Xbox Live Silver is free of charge. 

Here in lies the rub.  While trying to configure my Xbox Live setup, the console informed me that there was a problem with the MTU setting of my router/modem.  Say what?  More specifically it was unable to get the MTU setting to validate it.  Since I use SmoothWall as a firewall/router, and the Xbox 360 is on the green network, I made the assumption that my smoothie was the problem.  The answer is actually quite simple and you can read all about it at the SmoothWall Community Forums.

To sum it up:

1. Set a static IP for your Xbox. In my case it's 192.168.1.13 and it's on my green network, and I set the IP on the Xbox itself.
2. In your Smoothie, under Networking click on the Incoming tab.
3. Forward ports TCP/UDP 88 and TCP/UDP 3074 to the Static IP set for you Xbox.
4. Under the Outgoing tab, allow ports 88 and 3074. (When you allow ports on the Outgoing tab, it automatically allows both UDP and TCP ports)

Note - If you specified a DNS server when setting your Xbox IP settings manually other than your Smoothwall, and you have a half-open network, you'll need to allow port 53 (DNS) as an outbound port as well.

That's it - quick and easy.  After making these changes, I was connected and updating in no time.

Why is it that, as a society, we gravitate to that which is bad for us.  Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and prostitution are facts of life.  I'm not going to pick on anything that harsh today.  Nope, today is a junk food rant.  Junk food is the vice of choice for many these days.  We fill our mouths, and subsequently our bellies, with all sorts of crap.  I can put back a bag of chips a night - it's just that easy.  I also need to wash that down with a soda based beverage of some sort.  Maybe two or three of them.

We know it's not good for us, but we do it anyway.  How does McDonalds stay in business?  You know how.  They cater to the very vices that we cling to.  Deep fried, no nutrients, sugar loaded pleasantries abound.  There is nothing better than polishing off a 20 pack of Chicken McNuggets.  Mmm mmm good.  Follow that up with a super-sized Coke - excellent.  Maybe you're not a fan of the golden arches.  Maybe you prefer the candy bars?  How do you choose your poison?  Does Snickers really satisfy you. 

Halloween is nearly here.  That means that your children are going to be getting that taste of the sweet, sweet goodness - in preparation of becoming morbidly obese adults.  Are you ready?  Are they?   Maybe you should take them out for an ice cream or two to celebrate.

One food I really love is the nachos and cheese that you get at 7/11.  Man that is a good snack after a night of binge drinking.  I can really appreciate and enjoy such a delicacy.  Sometimes I like to follow it up with a hot dog that has been on the rollers far too long.  It's a wonder I don't just eat out of a dumpster. 

I once heard a story of a parent sending their kid to school with a 2 litre bottle of rootbeer and a sleeve of saltine crackers - as a weeks worth of lunch.  We're getting them started early these days, aren't we?

Well nobody says it as good as the manufacturer, so let me quote them:

The Web Platform Installer Beta (Web PI) provides a single, free package for installing and configuring Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS7, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s simple user interface, you can select specific components or install the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. To help you stay up-to-date with product releases, the Web Platform Installer always contains the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform.

That was a mouthful.

In layman's terms, it's a one-stop-shop for installing the components you need for the Microsoft Web Stack.  As a developer, this is a very helpful tool that installs all of the components you need to have a fully functioning Web Stack.  IIS, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Visual Web Developer, plus all of the current IIS Extensions.  You can basically just run the tool and wait patiently for all of this great stuff to magically appear.  That's where my 'sort of' comes in.  It took me three tries to get it all done.  On two different occasions the system required me to reboot after installing one of the components.  Each time this happened I had to go back to the Web Platform Installer website and re-launch the installer. 

After the third launch, SQL Server completed installing and I was off to the races.  I think this application has some huge potential and I look forward to seeing the final version, as well as the effect this will have on future product installations.  Just a note of caution, Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 are requirements to use this tool and both 32-bit and 64-bit are supported.

You can try it out at the Microsoft Web Platform Installer Website.

Silverlight helps in providing a very unique, very rich user experience to web users.  Companies such as CBS College Sports, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, Yahoo Japan, AOL, Toyota, HSN and Tenecent are building their next generation web sites using Silverlight.  Microsoft will also be extending support for Silverlight development to the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition development tool, which is free for download.

Highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:

• .NET Framework support with a rich base class library. This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.
• Powerful built-in controls. These include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more. 
• Advanced skinning and templating support. This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.
• Deep zoom. This enables unparalleled interactivity and navigation of ultrahigh resolution imagery.
• Comprehensive networking support. Out-of-the-box support allows calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling users to create applications that easily integrate with existing back-end systems. 
• Expanded .NET Framework language support. Unlike other runtimes, Silverlight 2 supports a variety of programming languages, including Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier for developers already familiar with one of these languages to repurpose their existing skill sets. 
• Advanced content protection. This now includes Silverlight DRM, powered by PlayReady, offering robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences. 
• Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream advertising support. 
• Vibrant partner ecosystem. Visual Studio Industry Partners such as ComponentOne LLC, Infragistics Inc. and Telerik Inc. are providing products that further enhance developer capabilities when creating Silverlight applications using Visual Studio. 
• Cross-platform and cross-browser support. This includes support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.

The SCP, which will augment the powerful built-in control set in Silverlight includes controls such as DockPanel, ViewBox, TreeView, Accordion and AutoComplete.

If you would like to learn more about Silverlight, check out the Silverlight Fact Sheet over at Microsoft.com.

Get Silverlight 2

Each critical patch affects one of the following:  Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Host Integration Server, and Microsoft Excel.  Nothing new there.  All four patch security holes that would allow remote code execution if exploited.  Nothing new there either.  The important patches all affect Windows and could enable remote code execution or privilege elevation if exploited.  All together now - No shock there.

More importantly than the routine hole fillers, Microsoft will begin sharing the technical details of new vulnerabilities this month.  That means that software manufacturers can have the opportunity to update affected products before the public announcement.  The goal here is for Microsoft Partners to not be standing there looking stupid and clueless when vulnerabilities and patches are released.

Microsoft will also be providing an "exploitability index" with each bulletin to help system administrators prioritize patches.  Where I work I doubt this will have any impact, since they simply push all security patches out to the desktops and servers.  No rhyme, no reason.  Just deployment.  Surprisingly though, they have disabled access to Windows Update.  Must be a control thing... and we can discuss that another time.

I applaud Microsoft for this first small step towards community collaboration and possibly, just possibly, bringing us one step closer to a more secure operating system of the industry giant.  I won't go holding my breathe, but I will hold out just a little hope.  If you have concerns about Microsoft Security, visit their Technical Security Notifications page and sign up for an E-mail, RSS, or Windows Live Message whenever a new security bulletin is issued.

The first challenge I faced was getting disks.  Apparently the only type that I stock in my home are DVDs.  So I trekked down to the local Wal-Mart and grabbed a spindle of 50.  Sadly, they were nearly double the price of the same sized spindle of DVDs.  Not cool.

Now, I have Roxio installed, but I'm getting tired of it bloating my system with useless features, so I set out to find a new burning app.  The obvious place to find such a thing is LifeHacker.com, and a quick search brought me to the Free Replacements for Paid Tools as voted by the readers.  In the article, readers suggested their favorite burning tools as a replacement for Nero - another pile of bloatware crap.  The winner?  CDBurnerXP.

A quick browse of their website showed me some screenshots of the tool and gave me a good impression of what it could do.  Here is the lowdown:

Key Features:

• burn all kinds of discs
• audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
• burn and create ISO files
• data verification after burning process
• create bootable discs
• multi-language interface
• bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Excellent I thought.  Audio CDs with or without gaps!  Too good to be true.  What the hell.  I downloaded and installed it.  Installation was easy and painless.  The application interface is relatively intuitive.  Even though it's called CDBurnerXP, it runs great on Vista.  I loaded up the audio tracks, burned the disk and then ran it through the test.  Success!  It plays in a cd player. 

Second test, an ISO of XMBC LiveCD.  Selected the file, clicked burn.  Waited.  Tried to boot from disk.  Didn't work.  Excellent.  The problem was with XBMC, not the burn.  I can safely say that CDBurnerXP is a very acceptable replacement for the bloatware pushed out with burners these days.  It's refreshing to see free products that are 100x better than a competing retail product.  Check out their awards page to see just how great this utility is.

Download it today!

The story starts off on a Labour Day weekend. A woman received a call from her banks fraud investigator asking if she had withdrawn $500 from an ATM in California over the weekend.  Her answer was, not surprisingly, "no".  After all, she does live in Washington and had been home all weekend.  The immediate reaction being that someone had cracked her online banking was the standard uneducated response.

As security professionals know, the answer is usually much simpler.  See, cracking online banking usually requires a great degree of effort and computing power, since the encryption they use is pretty much top notch.  The easier thing to do is to copy the card information from an unsuspecting victim and then record their pin.  Sound complex?  Think again.  Often times the criminals will install small hidden cameras at the pump, or slip a fake keypad over the real one. 

The thieves install a small and relatively undetectable device to the swipe mechanism of the pump.  Unless you are a trained eye, you are not going to see these things.  This hard to spot reader is also known as a "skimmer" and can grab the card info without disrupting the transaction.  Sounds a little technical for organized crime, but surprisingly identity theft is starting become the big business of mobsters the world over.

Long weekends are the most popular times for attacks of this nature, since banks are closed and extra day.  This means that the thieves have a whole extra day to cash out before anyone even notices.  It also used to be more popular to steal credit card numbers, since you didn't need a pin.  Nowadays, debit cards have become bigger targets because you don't need to use them in person.  You can simply get cash and walk away.  A credit card usually means that the thief would have to buy something, then fence it to get their return.  Too much work.

In Las Vega, cops have even discovered wireless transmitters inside the pump.  The thieves wait in the parking lot with a laptop while your info is transmitted to them in real time.

Gas pumps are NOT the only targets either, just the latest.  Skimming happens all over the place.  Even the ATM could have a skimming device embedded in it.

Well, wait no longer my friends.  The announcement of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 has arrived!

Microsoft Corp. today provided the first look at the next version of its developer tools and platform, which will be named Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. Microsoft described the next release through the following five focus areas: riding the next-generation platform wave, inspiring developer delight, powering breakthrough departmental applications, enabling emerging trends such as cloud computing, and democratizing application life-cycle management (ALM).

Today’s announcement included an in-depth look at how Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010 (code-named “Rosario”) will help democratize ALM with a unique solution that brings all the members of a development organization into the application development life cycle, and removes many of the existing barriers to integration. Additional details on the other focus areas will be disclosed over the product development cycle.

“With Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, we are focused on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms spanning client, server, services and devices, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements,” said S. “Soma” Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “These pillars are designed specifically to meet the needs of developers, the teams that drive the application life cycle from idea to delivery, and the customers that demand the highest quality applications across multiple platforms. You can expect to hear a lot more about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 in the coming months.”

Democratizing Application Life-Cycle Management

Today, much of application development remains siloed throughout the enterprise, leading to decreased productivity and lengthy product development cycles. With VSTS 2010, Microsoft is taking the next step forward in giving individuals and development organizations an advanced solution that enables them to integrate effectively and build and deliver high-quality applications.

This includes new capabilities that make it easier for all contributors on the software team to participate throughout the life cycle — from the core developers and testers to the wider team of project managers, designers and business analysts. Highlights include the following:

• Modeling tools. With VSTS 2010 Architecture, Microsoft will enable both technical and nontechnical users to create and use models to collaborate and to define business and system functionality graphically. The new version supports both Unified Modeling Language and Domain Specific Language support, so development organizations will have the right tool for right job. The new modeling capabilities in VSTS 2010 are a core part of the larger Microsoft modeling platform, which will also include the “Oslo” repository, tools and language.
 
• Improved efficiency throughout the test cycle. With VSTS 2010, Microsoft has made a significant investment in testing features and dramatically simplifying the tools required to integrate testing across the life cycle. New features include the ability to eliminate nonreproducible bugs, fast setup and deployment of tests to ensure the highest degree of completeness of test, focused test planning and progress tracking, and ensuring that all code changes are properly tested.
 
• Substantial improvements in collaboration capabilities. Microsoft has made major investments in the capabilities and scalability of Team Foundation Server (TFS) including significant improvements that allow teams to configure and adopt any flavor of Agile development processes. Teams can track and trace work more easily with richer linking of work items enabling hierarchical work item relationships. In the source code management system, TFS now provides visualization tools for tracking changes across branches and into the production build. VSTS 2010 also introduces workflow-based builds that catch errors before they have a chance to affect the rest of the team or, worse, enter production. Finally, administrators will find dramatically simpler TFS deployment and management.
 

“The application life cycle is an integral part of today’s business. Regardless of core competencies, all organizations are driven by software that is created and customized to deliver a competitive advantage,” said Theresa Lanowitz, founder of voke, inc. “Enterprises that invest in an ALM solution can decrease their total cost of ownership of applications in their IT portfolio, and bring about a global approach that is an integrated and expansive system consisting of people, processes and technology. This global approach to ALM facilitates collaboration and takes the risk out of software development to produce predictable and reliable results for an optimized business outcome. Solutions such as VSTS are poised to take advantage of market opportunity by offering an application life-cycle platform to help enterprises realize this ROI benefit.”

In another move to increase integration across the life cycle, Microsoft also announced that VSTS 2010 will provide a unified VSTS Development and Database product. As a benefit to existing Software Assurance (SA) customers, those who currently own Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition or Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition will receive all the following products starting Oct. 1, 2008, for free:

• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition
 
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition
 
• Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Software Developers
 
• Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Database Professionals
 

The products will be available to SA customers through their normal Microsoft Developer Network channel. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa.

More information about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 is available at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9537302.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

One of my favorite things to do first thing in the morning is to sit down at my computer and read the news.  Well, not just the news per se, but an information gathering session of sorts.  I read the weather for the day and sift through an army of RSS feeds, but the news is also high on my list.  So why is it always bad?

I don’t mean bad in the sense of getting unwelcome or unhappy news.  I mean bad in the sense of tons of useless stuff that I don’t want to read.  I’m going to pick on CNN, since it’s one of my favorite sites to hit.  Every morning, and all day long for that matter, CNN is jam packed with useless, unimpressive “news”.  What passes as newsworthy today is downright disgusting. 

The US presidential election seems to consume about 1/3 of their content.  Are Americans really that interested in their politics?  The headlines read “Obama Goes to the Bathroom” and “Palin Prefers Green Beans”.   Seriously, I can’t imagine that the vast majority of the population is that interested in this stuff.

To add insult to injury, the Crime section of their site is very stagnate.  With the levels of crime in North America, one would think that covering crime stories would be easy money.  Instead we get to read about how the mother of missing little girl Caylee had called her a snot head.  Who cares?  Find the child – it helps no one to hear that she called her daughter a name.  Everyone calls their kid a name at some point in time.  We’re human.  All I’m asking for here is to not read the same regurgitated story for days, just because you can’t find a new story to write about.

CNET is no better.  Another one of my favorite reads, I get my tech news from CNET because frankly, CNN couldn’t cover technology to save its life.  CNET is riddled with articles like “How long before Wal-Mart reverses DRM decision?”.  This is an article of pure, speculative crap in a place where I seek out the truth and the facts.

Journalists have gotten sloppy these days.  Find interesting news and report it as cold hard facts, lest you become a blog full of useless rants, like mine.  J

The last point is where today's story picks up.  Now you know that I can't reveal actual names, but I will tell you a refreshing tale of corporate waste that snuck up on me today and pushed my sanity level to a whole knew dimension.

It starts with an interview process to hire, wait re-hire a temp employee who has been with us for a number of months now.  The contract had run out and rather than extend the contract for said temp employee, office politics had forced us into wasting the time of re-posting the position.  Imagine my dismay when we discovered that only one of the multiple other possible candidates was eligible for an interview based on a vast and accurate scoring criteria.

Imagine my further dismay when that interview bombed to the point of not being usable.  Our policies require that two candidates be interviewed so that we can prove how honest we are.  So what did we do?  Well, we decided to pick the best of the worst and give them an interview as well.  All the while knowing full well that they aren't qualified and won't get the position - just to say that we did our due diligence.  Waste factor number two.

And why did we go to this effort?  Simply put - to appease the requirements of one of the chiefs five levels up from us.  If we didn't do this, our complete placement would be jeopardized and we would have to start the filling process all over again.  So to recap, we did an additional interview at the cost of the time of three employees and wasted the candidates time, just to achieve the same end-state solely to appease the king of the castle.  Do you think if we asked the king about his thoughts on the entire situation that he would be pleased with the waste we created to satisfy his policy?

A couple of days ago I was playing with a VM of Windows Server 2008 Core and was having some trouble adding the VMware tools.  I didn't have to look far for an answer, the folks at Windows Reference have a terrific article up with multiple solutions to this problem.  I've referenced them below.

Solution 1

Windows 2008 Server Core benefits from VMware Tools, even though the GUI is mostly just a commandline. The most important benefit is the VMware enhanced mouse driver. This allows you to move the mouse in and out of the VM without having to to press the Ctrl-Alt release sequence.

Installing VMware Tools is a bit tricky, though, because there’s no shell to integrate into. Here’s how to install VMware Tools on Server Core: 

• Log into your Windows Server 2008 Server Core VM with an admin account 
• From the VMware Workstation console, click the VM menu Install VMware Tools. This will mount the VMware Tools disk in the virtual CD-Rom drive. 
• From the command line, switch to drive D: (or whatever drive is your CD drive) 
• Type Setup and press Enter 
• Click Install to the VMware informational message. The VMware Tools will begin to setup. 
• Click Next to install 
• Click Next to perform a Typical setup
• Click Install to begin the installation 
• When you see the status stall, open Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Ins Start Task Manager) 
• Click the Applications tab, select the RUNDLL process and choose End Task 
• Close Task Manager and click OK to any error messages. Setup will continue as normal.
• Click Finish and click Yes to restart the server
  When Windows Server 2008 Server Core starts up, it will be in 640×480 resolution. Read my next blog post to explain how to configure the resolution in Windows 2008 Server Core.

Solution 2

VMware Tools on Server Core by first mounting the VMware Tools ISO by selecting the “Install VMware Tools” option, then issuing:
msiexec /i “d:\VMware Tools.msi” /qn
in the console window.

Solution 3

For those unfamiliar with Server Core it is a command line only version of Windows Server 2008. On the GUI version of Windows 2008 server, VMWare tools must be installed to get the NIC working. Server Core however is command line only. VMWareTools is a GUI installation so this is not an option for Server Core.

The workaround is to transfer VMWareTools (contained in a file called windows.iso) from your ESX server to a local drive. This can be done using Winscp. Use Virtual Center to mount the windows.iso file as a CDROM drive in the Server Core VM. The driver files are located in \Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Tools\Drivers\VMXNet\w2k of the windows.iso file. The command used to install the drivers is

C:\Windows\System32>pnputil -i -a vmxnet.inf

Microsoft PnP Utility
Processing inf : vmxnet.inf
Successfully installed the driver on a device on the system.
Driver package added successfully.
Published name : oem2.inf

Next check the installation of the driver. Vmxnet should be displayed near the end of the list.

C:\Windows\System32>driverquery

ws2ifsl Winsock IFS driver Kernel 23/03/2007 04:52:40
vmxnet VMware Ethernet Adapte Kernel 22/04/2006 23:13:11

One of the questions I hear a lot is "How do I make Windows Server 2008 look more like Vista?".  One of the answers that I love to give is "Why would you want to do that?".  Seriously, it's a server - it's not supposed to be pretty.  In fact, if your server is properly secured, you should never see the interface.  That was easy.  Well, not that easy.  Since part of having a successful blog means answering reader questions, I have decided to provide the information to you.

After some brief searching, I found the answer over at thevistaforums.com and decided not to re-invent the wheel.

First, add the Desktop Experience and .NET 3.0 features.
1. Right-click Computer, an click Manage.
2. Click Features, then Add Features.
3. Expand .NET Framework 3.0 Features, and select .NET Framework 3.0 and XPS Viewer.
4. Select Desktop Experience.
5. Click Next and install the features; reboot.

Next, configure the Themes service to run automatically.
1. Right-click Computer, select Manage.
2. Expand Configuration, click Services.
3. Scroll down to Themes, and double-click it.
4. Under Startup type, select Automatic.
5. Apply the change, then Start the service.

The Windows Vista Basic and Windows Aero themes should now be visible if you right-click your desktop, select Personalize, and Window Color and Experience. To enable the full effects of the Aero theme, we have to take it a step further.

1. Right-click Computer, select Properties.
2. Click Advanced System Settings.
3. Under the Performance section, click Settings.
4. Select Adjust for Best Appearance.

And there lies the answer to your question.  Now you can pretty up and slow down your server like a champ!  Again, I will remind you that I don't recommend doing this, but it's your server and not mine.  :)  

Everyone knows that I am a huge fan of FreeNAS - the free network attached storage solution that runs on a cd.  Well, last night Gary Sims pointed me in the direction of his site http://www.learnfreenas.com/ and I have to tell you that I was quite impressed!  Gary just happens to also be the author of the Learning FreeNAS book from PACKT Publishing.

The Learn FreeNAS website is a fantastic collection of articles and videos that can help you understand the FreeNAS product and the best ways to use it.  The first video I saw was a "Tour of the FreeNAS server" which was a narrated video tour of the FreeNAS web interface.  I found the videos and articles to be very easy to follow and quite helpful as a training aid.  In addition to content regarding the current version of the product, there are also many articles and videos on the future FreeNAS version 0.70 release.  If that's not enough for you, there is a forum where one can play question and answer, and a downloads section where you can grab a copy of the latest versions of FreeNAS.

The site also offers a news section that gives the reader access to all of the latest FreeNAS related news, plus offers up an RSS feed that allows keeping-up-to date to be easier than ever.  From what I can tell, Gary isn't directly affiliated with the FreeNAS team, but after reviewing his work I definitely think that he should be.  I wish more products out there had this type of additional documentation layer.  Thanks Gary for helping the masses embrace this incredible storage solution - and thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Head on over to http://www.learnfreenas.com/ today and see just how easy this product is to use. 

As airlines fight to keep the money rolling in, a wave of new services is coming online to entice would-be travellers.  One such service is the in-flight Internet access from American Airlines.  Since August 20th, a limited amount of fliers have been able to stay connected while in the air - a service that should have been available years ago.  While not free, the $10 - $13 service is being used by business users and Internet Junkies alike.  This great step forward also has a dark side though...

It would seem that the flight attendants and the other passengers have raised a lot of complaints regarding the viewing of pornography by the consumers of these services.  The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has asked American Airlines to add filters to the service which would block inappropriate content.  While there has been no announcement in regards to a response, American Airlines has stated that the program is in a 3-6 month trial period and usage will be reviewed at the end of it.

Restricting access could cause the airline a lot of grief though.  Earlier this year, the Denver International Airport blocked access on its free Wi-Fi service to web sites deemed inappropriate by officials.  That didn't go over well and the airport suffered some very negative PR.  While they could argue that as a free service, consumers should not be complaining, a paid for in-flight service is a different matter. 

The flip side to this story is that airlines have not banned pornographic material on planes.  Anyone can bring a magazine or a video on their portable DVD player on a plane and review it while in the air.  So what makes using a laptop and the Internet any different?  How often does this really happen anyway?

Source:  cnet news

Earlier this week, the London Stock Exchange suffered a tremendous blow as the software that runs the show became plagued with connectivity issues.  It took six hours and 45 minutes to get it back up and running, but the damage was already done.  I first came across this story on Steven J.Vaughan-Nichols' blog over at the ComputerWorld blogs.  What I found was unfortunately not the facts, but the jaded opinion of a Linux loving Microsoft hater.

I'm not pro-Microsoft or pro-Linux.  I'm pro-intelligent.  I'm all about getting the job done in the best possible way and every scenario is different.  Steven took the time to point out that Microsoft and Accenture (a previous employer of mine) had created the TradeElec software utilized by the LSE.  He further made sure to note that the TradeElec software runs on hundreds of Windows 2003 servers and stores data on a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 platform.  None of this is relevant to the story though.  Had he done his research, he would have discovered that network connectivity was the problem and that is independent of the problem.

He also indicated that New York Stock Exchange is already using Linux on some of its servers.  My thoughts on that are "And then?"

I certainly agree that the 8 year old database platform could use an upgrade, but if it isn't broken, why fix it?  The anti-Linux people would have loved if the LSE was using Linux so that they could use the same kind of story to blast the Linux platform.  It's quite sad really.  The rumour mill got all fired up on this one and all kinds of stories started popping up about hackers and sub par software.  The fact remains though, it was just the network.

I feel for all the traders who were unable to capitalize on the news that the U.S. government was coming to the aid of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  Better luck next time.  As for Steven, maybe you could try your hand at being a Wal-Mart greeter.

Terry Childs was your everyday network administrator, quietly and brilliantly keeping the show going for the city of San Francisco.  His attorneys refer to him as a model employee.  So what causes a model employee to be sitting behind bars on a $5 million bail?  Crazed and scared politicians who don't understand the very technology they employ - that's who.

Back in July, Terry was charged with four felony counts of computer network tampering for allegedly rigging the city's FibreWAN network with his own passwords.  They also allege that he installed traps that would cause a complete system failure should the power be shut off.  The question remains though, why did he do it?  The answer is shockingly simple.  Just like every other IT worker out there, he wasn't appreciated.

If you are in IT, then you already know that you aren't paid what you are worth and your work is generally taken for granted.  Even though you keep the lights on and the operation running smooth, your role in the organization is viewed as miniscule.  When cutbacks happen, IT workers are the first to go.  It doesn't matter that most of the non-IT staff can be replaced by systems built by the IT employees.  Politicians and decision makers never have a grasp of the IT world. 

There are no concrete details as to why Terry did it.  The media is running a circus and creating a buzz by turning him into a monster.  None of their stories make sense though and it all adds up to fear mongering. 

The city now has it's network back.  In a secret jail cell meeting, Terry gave the mayor of San Francisco the passwords to the locked out FibreWAN. The papers report that the cleanup from this wrong-doing will cost the city $1 million.  Sadly, the public is unaware that in the private sector, that job would only cost about $200,000.  Tax payers are generally unaware that they pay 4x - 10x more for technology services within governments than could be purchased on the street.

One day the admins will unite and render the rest of the world obsolete.

If you would like to follow the story, Paul Venezia over at InfoWorld is doing a good job at collecting the facts.

Today I discovered a new version of an old app.  Google Mobile App for Blackberry.  That's a mouthful.

While the app itself isn't new, this version is and it's jam-packed with goodness.  Existing users will notice that the home screen is much cleaner than it was before (I read that on their blog as I am a new user).  New users will simply be delighted with the interface.  It really brings together some of the most useful and common Google applications all in one place on your Berry.

In addition to basic search functionality, all of your favourites are there:

• Google Mail
• Google Maps
• Google News
• Google Reader
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs
• Google Photo
• Google Sync
• Google Notebook

I think this app is a very handy tool to have at my fingertips and will certainly be of benefit to the vast majority of the CrackBerry community.  The biggest downside is that most of the applications that this one brings together are still web based, so clicking on them usually results in the launching of a browser window.  As much as I would love to see a migration to native applications, I can settle with this for now.  The interface really does wonders by eliminating clutter and bringing the tools together in a slick and easy to use manner.

Google has been on a roll lately, making my Internet-connected world that much easier to handle.  Last week they introduced the world to Google Chrome and now this!  What's next from the technology giant?  I personally can't wait to see.  Maybe it will be the Google Space Shuttle or the Google Mars Lander.  Imagination is the limit.

Back to reality, if you want to get this Google Mobile App for yourself head on over to http://m.google.com/ with your BlackBerry browser and get Googling today!

Yesterday I was trying to find some information on MS Virtual Server vs the new and exciting Hyper-V product.  I was a little confused when I opened up what appeared to be a Microsoft community forum website and the address at the top of the screen said http://thesource.ofallevil.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.virtualserver&tid=510822d7-50ab-4ce2-a87a-5906bd0707de&cat=en_US_4547053a-f94d-4ba8-8099-616e26d29a02&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1 .  Notice that the address doesn't start with "www.microsoft.com", but rather "thesource.ofallevil.com".  Amusingly fitting.  For a moment, I thought Microsoft was playing a cruel joke on me, so I started poking around.

My colleagues suggested that someone had actually made a realistic duplicate of the Microsoft website for whatever illicit purposes, but I wasn't convinced.  The information was too up-to-date for me though.  If someone was indeed working a scam, they were pretty dedicated to it.  I did some more Googling and found a very large number of forum posts where people were asking the same questions as I.  The most informative post I found was on the Spire Security Viewpoint blog.  It would seem that there are no concrete answers. 

What I can tell you is that this site was registered in 2002 and has a DNS CNAME record that resolves to the same IP as Microsoft.com.  While the whois information for the ofallevil.com site is not the same as the Microsoft.com whois, it is possible that M$ bought the domain at some point in the past 6 years.  The reasoning is that normally Microsoft would shut down such a site, as it places bad PR upon the company.  There is another subdomain of the ofallevil.com domain as well.  theroot.ofallevil.com maps back to the VeriSign website.

An elaborate prank or shameless promotion - what are your thoughts?

I personally found it very easy to setup and start using.  The installation is very straight-forward and the interface takes very little time to adjust to for basic browsing.  My first impressions were very focused on a very large performance increase in loading websites.  When connecting to my internal firewall logs, I was able to load the page in less than a second.  This is a far cry from the 7 - 10 seconds that Internet Explorer has been taking to load the same pages.  The general consensus on the web is strikingly similar.  Chrome is blowing away the competition when put into any sort of performance tests.  Google seems to have also taken a cue from Microsoft and added in a stealth browsing feature called "Incognito".  This allows you to surf without leaving a trace of history or cookies on the computer you used.  Great for the office.

Sadly, there were some areas that could be improved.  For example, the download bar that irritates you by showing you everything you have downloaded.  Then there is the auto-suggest feature that relays your browsing habits back to Google - not just what you are searching.  Basically they have access to any keystrokes that are typed into the Omnibox.  This problem is easily rectified.  Simply right-click in the address bar and select "Edit search engines".  Then you can uncheck the box labelled as "Use a suggestion service..." and continue on your merry way.

There is also a stack of easter eggs hidden in the browser by way of the about pages - which are already common to Firefox users.  Simply enter any of the following into the address bar and a wealth of information will become available.

• about:cache
• about:dns
• about:histograms
• about:internets
• about:memory
• about:network
• about:plugins
• about:stats
• about:version

All in all I am very impressed with this browser and can't wait for the final release.  I strongly recommend that if you don't already have it, download it and try it out!

Name tagging, which is set to launch at noon today (PST), is a new feature for Picasa that allows users to put a name to a face.  "That's not new though, all the other photo sites allow tagging", you say.  Yes, that is correct, but do they also present a collection of photos that have been deemed to resemble the person in your photos so that you can properly name them?  I think not.  This new revamped Picasa site offers a state-of-the-art facial recognition technology that will push this service ahead of the market. 

Facial recognition technologies have been gaining speed for the past few years, however a commercially viable and inexpensive offering has not yet made it to market.  The technology launching later today from Google was added to their arsenal with the acquisition of Neven Vision in 2006.

Expecting to capitalize on the addition and compulsion trends of typical web users, Google expects that the new Picasa will have tremendous growth.  I personally suspect that in the first few days the web of name tags will grow exponentially.  Tagging is already popular among many web technologies, and pictures are no exception.  The biggest problem with tagging today is that it's a chore.  The process is quite manual and many users can't be bothered.  That is all about to change.  Picasa's name tag feature throws enough automation at the process, that a whole new subset of taggers are likely to emerge.

Google's Picasa still has a long way to go if they want to compete with the likes of Yahoo's Flickr or Fox Interactive's Photobucket.  The revamp launching today is certainly a step in the right direction.  Sadly, Google's Photos Blog has not been updated with the details of this latest upgrade.

I have this nasty tree stump smack dab in the middle of my interlocking brick patio.  It's an eyesore, among other things.  I think the plan from the previous owners was to plant a tree in the middle of the patio when they built it, however when I bought the house it was just a three foot tall stump.  I cut it down to be level with the bricks about a week after moving in.  When the new hot tub came this month, I decided it was time to fix up some of the uneven sections of the patio.  That included the dreaded stump.

I started by removing the off-colour ring of bricks around the stump, in preparation for back filling it.  I then dug out a bunch of the dirt around the stump, then I started on the stump itself.  The first tool of choice was my trusty camping hatchet.  It's a decent-sized Fiskars hatchet which was recently sharpened.  It did some damage to the 10 inch diameter stump, but really couldn't break down the solid core.  I'm not sure what kind of tree it was, but it was hardwood for sure. 

Next I broke out my electric chainsaw.  This beauty has never let me down, cutting down tree after tree like a hot knife in butter.  Well, this time it let me down.  Ok, no more messing around.  I blew the dust off of my gas powered Stihl 009L.  This chainsaw is an older model that I inherited from an ex-girlfriend's grandfather.  I've always had trouble getting it to run, since I am not really a small engine guy.  I had it tuned up when I acquired it a few years ago, but never really used it.  Trying to start it was pointless.  The more I pulled on the cord, the more my arm hurt and the less the saw started up. 

After some elaborate reading on the interweb, I discovered that old gas might be my problem.  I made my way to Canadian Tire and purchased some Carb Cleaner.  While it is designed for cars, I thought it was worth a try.  I drained the old gasoline from the saw and put about half of the can of cleaner into the fuel tank.  I put it all back together and then started to pull the cord.  After a handful of pulls, it started to sputter.  I gave it some gas and the chain started to go.  I ran it for about 10 minutes, then added some clean fuel (50:1 ratio) to it.

It only took a couple of pulls and we were running on fuel again.  That being said, the chainsaw had some trouble with the stump.  I think it might need a bit more chain oil, or possibly a chain sharpening.  I'll let you know.

Since the early days of their killer search engine, Google has dominated many of the markets that it plays in.  It's no real surprise to find out they have an interest in the browser market.  They already hold a significant number of users in the online mail circuit with their gMail product.  They have been working the browser add-ons for some time with they Google Search Bar.  Why not bring some new competition to the browser wars.  Microsoft has seemingly dominated this area since the early days of Internet Explorer 3 and 4.  Only recently has a real competitor come forward to challenge their monopoly - Mozilla and their Firefox product.  Google will definitely have to produce an amazing product to compete with Firefox 3 and the looming Internet Explorer 8.

The news of Google Chrome's development was accidentally leaked when a promotional comic was accidentally published a little too early.  Never the less, the company is eager to share the news.  After reading through the information published on the Google blog, it looks as though they built this browser from the ground up.  They refer to the interface as "streamlined and simple".  I like that idea.   Chrome is said to create each new tab in it's own isolated sandbox, so as not to have one tab crashing another and improve the level of protection from rogue sites.  They also built a more powerful JavaScript engine to power a new generation of web applications that are not possible with today's browsers.  Best of all, they are keeping it open source.  No secrets.

The beta version will be launching tomorrow, September 2, in more than 100 countries.  You can be sure we will be testing it out and sharing our thoughts.

I run what's called a red-green-orange-purple network.  Exciting isn't it?  Take a look at the image below for a little more detail and explanation.  I grabbed the image from the SmoothWall forums, and believe me, there are plenty more that are useful.  Basically the networks are as follows:

• Red - Incoming Internet connection - basically my DSL modem
• Green - Standard internal network for all of the computers and devices (and a few servers)
• Orange - DMZ Server network managing mail and web servers
• Purple - Wireless segregated network

In case it wasn't clear, each colour coded network runs on it's own subnet and is isolated from the others.  Each colour is also an individual nic in the server.  Obviously this greatly improves the security of my home network.  This weekend I set out to configure the purple network that was never set up properly.  Totally my fault :)

So, for my purple setup I used a D-Link DL-524+ wireless-g router.  In order to do this, you have to configure it to run in wireless access point (WAP) mode.  All you have to do is set the router to a static IP within the subnet and turn off DHCP within the router.  Please note that you have to have DHCP enabled on the SmoothWall purple interface for this to work.  To select your new router/WAP IP, look at the gateway address.  If your gateway (purple network) is something like 192.168.30.1, then your WAP IP should be something like 192.168.30.55.  If you are really stuck with this part, visit the forums and do a bit more reading.  In my case, the problem I had with my setup is that I had the WAP plugged into the wrong nic on the SmoothWall computer.  That was my stupid mistake for the day!

Since then I have slept much better knowing that my easily cracked wireless (does secure wireless really exist?) is isolated from the rest of my network.

Well, the spa has been in for a week now and the family is loving it.  There is nothing quite as relaxing as sinking into 104 degrees of chemically treated water and letting your cares melt away.  Getting to this point was less than easy though.  The hot tub purchase was plagued with frustration right from the get-go.  In my previous post, I mentioned the missing 'Standard Features' that had been removed as part of the promotion.  Well, I talked to the people at the pool store and they ordered me an ozone injector at no charge.  This is great because the injector is easy to install and the hot tub is pre-wired and pre-plumbed for it.  The installation should be a breeze.  That's not all though, they are also throwing in two terrycloth bath robes for my troubles.  I must be fair to the pool store by stating that they have worked hard to make up for every blunder that was created.

All told, they have given us a considerable amount of 'free' stuff to compensate for the issues.  The list includes:

• Free shipping
• A full case of Peroxysan Chemicals (as opposed to the standard 1/2 case)
• An extra filter cartridge
• A filter cartridge soaking canister
• Matching front steps
• A bottle of cleaning solution (to clean the plumbing out since rainwater got into the spa before delivery)
• $100 off the price of the cover lifter
• An ozone injector (yet to be delivered)
• Two terrycloth bathrobes (yet to be delivered)

I'm happy that they have gone out of their way to correct the mistakes, they could have easily taken the 'we have your money so go away' attitude.  I'm not as impressed with HydroPool as a company.  Don't get confused, HydroPool is not the pool store, M.P. Paradise Pools is.  HydroPool is simply the manufacturer.  So let's start with the props.  The hot tub is very nice and functions as expected.  It's easy to operate and easy to maintain.  The self cleaning feature simply rocks and the improved plumbing/pumping system is the best I have seen yet. 

Now for the downsides...  The company is virtually unreachable.  There telephone system is awful and it seems to take days to get someone to return your call.  The automated phone system gives you the option to press 3 for technical support, then gives you a list of employees and extensions.  How hard would it be to have to go to a call centre?  Certainly do not try to reach them on a Friday afternoon after 3pm, nobody will be there.  When the electrician was trying to wire the tub, we discovered that there is no entry port for the wiring into the cabinet.  A call to the pool store (after no answers from HydroPool) revealed that this is by design.  They claim the spa is 'critter proof', therefore you must make your own hole.  I found that to be a little absurd.  It makes sense to provide a conduit for the wiring.  The only way to get it in was to use a hole saw on the cabinet and feed it through.  I think my electrician did an excellent job though.  The last issue I want to bring to light is the fact that one of the jets wasn't working at all once it was up and running.  I took it apart and found what appeared to be scraps and leftovers of plastic from the installation clogging the jet.  This is after the company advised me that they wet test the spas for quality assurance purposes.

All in all I am very happy with the spa and the purchase, regardless of the mishaps and blunders.  I'm looking forwards to the years of enjoyment that it's going to bring.

Ok, good point, that normally doesn't happen.  Most people can hold it.  Still though, it's an interesting thought.  Enter Stall Status.

Our good friends over at Coding4Fun have given us yet another excellent application that allows us to avoid the situations noted above.  Stall Status is a Silverlight-based Vista Sidebar Gadget that interfaces with the Z-Wave wireless protocol and door sensors to notify you of the current occupied/available state of the bathroom stalls.  This amazing little tool is brought to us by Jerry Brunning from Clarity Consulting, Inc.  While this may seem a little bizarre to you, the implications are huge.  Imagine deploying the gadget to every machine in your office (assuming your company isn't too cheap to use Vista) and giving employees this sort of power. 

From a technology point of view, this application is fantastic.  It capitalizes on both an easy to use home networking technology (Z-Wave) and the rock solid Microsoft .Net programming platform.  Even if you aren't trying to bring your office into the next century of connectivity, this is a great way to get some hands on experience writing Vista Sidebar Gadgets, using Silverlight, and utilizing Z-Wave products.  If you are not familiar with the Z-Wave family, they bear a resemblance to the X-10 line of products that are heavily advertised around the interweb.

From the Coding4Fun website, they give the following synopsis of the project:

Well, after a couple of years we finally broke down and purchased a new hottub.  The old one stayed with the old house when we moved.  I used to spend at least an hour a day in the hottub at the old house, sometimes more.  Since we moved, I have longed for the relaxation that only a spa can deliver.  Not surprisingly, a couple of weeks ago I was at the pool store getting chlorine and I came across a pretty good deal.  I talked it over with the wife and we decided to go ahead.  Once the order was placed, we started the prep work for the concrete pad it would sit on.

We had a 4-5 week wait for the new tub, so we decided to remove the bricks from our interlocking brick patio to make room for the new concrete pad.  It was a lot of work.  At 10' x 8', we removed a lot of bricks and a lot of dirt.  We found a great place to get concrete from.  You basically go there with your vehicle, they hook up a trailer full of stone, then you take it home and dump it.  Once you are done, you simply take the trailer back and pick up a load of pre-mixed concrete.  In less than a day we had poured the new pad and just had to wait for it to cure.  Usually a couple of days.

Well the tub was delivered a couple of days ago and we arranged for the electrician to come tomorrow to put in the new line for it.  Once we got the tub in place, we noticed a couple of 'standard features' were missing that were outlined in the brochure.  One was a waterfall jet and the second was an ozone injector.  I made a few calls and it turns out I can install the ozone inject after the fact, but the waterfall jet is not likely going to happen.  The most frustrating part is that the pool place removed this stuff for their promo, yet failed to identify that.  Anyway, I expect to have it full this weekend and to be in it by Saturday.  Wish me luck!

How many weirdos does it take to make us realize that the world is a sick and twisted place?  Apparently a lot.

Over the past few weeks I have taken an interest in reading the headlines at CNN.com - particularly the Crime section.  One of the top stories today revolves around a man who kept his wife and four children hostage and no one new about it.  This family was held in a trailer that was complete squalor for several years.  Believe it or not, the trailer was located in a trailer park with plenty of neighbours around.  How does something like this happen?  How is a mother and four children, aged 11 - 14, held captive in a populated area and nobody knows?  What about the extended family?  Did nobody care about these people?

The squalor described was unimaginable - it caused a seasoned police detective to actually vomit and forced another to wear a gas mask.  The trailer is described as being wall-to-wall filth.  The counters were covered by a layer of insect f***the stove was home to a maggot colony, cockroaches ruled the refrigerator, and the master bedroom housed several ant hills under the mattress.  The once clear shower curtain is now a chocolate brown colour and drawing it back revealed what looked like a moving floor in the bath tub.  Cockroaches again.

Another article was about the ongoing saga of little Caylee who has been missing for weeks.  Her mother is absolutely useless and several key indicators point to foul play on her behalf.  That little girl never even had a chance.  New stories like these pop up everyday.  The gaps in the system are truly incredible and show some of the signs of over-population.  Human life has become expendable.

Here are some additional CNN headlines that got my attention today:

• Female bomber blows up pilgrims, killing 18
• Newlywed charged in wife's tub drowning
• Demons made man punch church
• Police: Parents force kids to fight

Parents force kids to fight??  What the hell?  There is something seriously wrong with the world today.

For the torrent nuts out there who just love to download, the team over at uTorrent have finally produced another stable release.  This new version, v1.8, marks the first release since January of this powerful downloading tool.  The changelog is ridiculously large, so I've collected some of the key changes for your reading pleasure.  The main major new features added are Teredo and IPv6 support.  Teredo is a tunnelling protocol designed to grant IPvv6 connectivity to nodes that are located behind IPv6 unaware devices (excerpt from wikipedia).  If you already have uTorrent installed, next time you launch it you will see a prompt asking you if you would like to download the new version.  If you don't already have it, check out the download link below.  Now, on with the list...

• Fix: replace backslashes in file paths for multifile URL seeding with forward slashes
• Change: make association check on startup apply to all associations, not just .torrent
• Fix: do not try to connect to IPv6 peers if IPv6 is not installed
• Change: stopped torrents now show no ETA instead of infinity
• Change: do not automatically register .torrent, prompt instead
• Fix: systray icon loading before Explorer is running
• Fix: save "run on startup" across installs
• Change: Display application name instead of executable name in Windows Vista message boxes
• Change: Make more message boxes that had OK and CANCEL options instead have YES and NO options
• Change: ETA times are now maxed out at 4 years
• Fix: slow or no connections with large numbers of seeding torrents
• Fix: GDI handle leak on resize
• Change: when done, disconnect peers that have everything we have (instead of only 100%)
• Fix: Display of '&' characters in various places including general tab
• Fix: crash when stopping an in-progress hash-check
• Fix: Ignore last preference and overview tab from previous versions; fixes a crash when downgrading
• Fix: Crash when redirecting multiple files at once
• Fix: element not found and 99% cpu bug with partfiles
• Fix: update timeouts with trackers
• Fix: Various tiny memory leaks

As you can see from this small subset of the log, the team has been hard at work.  Get your copy today!

Well, this weekend was the maiden voyage of our new old popup camper.  As expected, there were a few hiccups.  We did our best to have the camper ready to go, but inevitably a few things were overlooked.  The good news is that the cables I installed into the lift system worked great.  Raising and lowering the roof proved effortless and I was very happy to see that they held up against the test.  In fact, I am happy to say that the trailer went up without any major problems.

There was one small issue I guess you could say.  I had opened up the zippered window on the end of the kids bunk.  That wouldn't have been a disaster, but the poles that hold the canvas upright have a clamp that had weakened over time.  When the thunderstorm struck, the downpour was more weight than the canvas could handle, so the water ran down and into the open window.  As the bunk was flooding, the kids were yelling to me and advising me that there was a leak.  I didn't hurry, because I didn't expect it would be a flood. 

Since we were unsure as to how waterproof the camper would be, we were trying to get a large tarp over then camper when the storm hit.  My advice to anyone else out there is to put the tarp up before you raise the roof.  It makes things much easier.  So back to the bunk end, I zipped it up and was trying to put the pole back up when the canvas ripped open near the corner.  Things were looking down for our hero...

I did some makeshift patching and got us set up as best I could in the rain.  The kids ended up sleeping on the bed made from the dining area instead of the bunk on the first night.  Day two was much better.  I picked up some fabric repair glue stuff and patched canvas up.  We propped up the foam mattress and ran a fan under the setup to dry it out.  That did the trick and the kids were able to sleep up there on the second night.  The weather held out on day two and three, so we managed to enjoy the park much more.

The only other real dilemma was that sink leaked a little and needs a little bit of plumbers putty to seal it up again.  Other than that, I think the weekend went really well.  We've learned a few things and can't wait to do some more camping in our new old camper.

If you've been following the saga, I have had one hell of a time getting Windows Live Messenger on my crackberry err... BlackBerry.  I have a Blackberry 8703e from Telus that my employer provides me and I have noted in previous posts about the problems I have encountered while trying to install Windows Live Messenger.  For a long time it told me that my device could no support such a product.  Later on, I posted about a press release from Microsoft talking about a new partnership with RIM to deliver the Messaging platform to all users.  Well, on the weekend I was able to download and install Windows Live Messenger onto my handheld and I must say that I am truly impressed.

Before I tell you about my experience with it, let me first tell you how I got it.  I opened the browser on my berry and went to "Home Page".  The home page link takes me to the RIM BlackBerry homepage.  From there I went to "Instant Messaging for BlackBerry Smartphones".  Then I clicked on Search and waited patiently for it to tell me that my device wasn't supported.  When the page loads I scroll past Yahoo Messenger and down to Windows Live Messenger where I click "Download Windows Live Messenger".  I was pleasantly surprised, yet still skeptical when it told me that I could actually download the software.  So I tried it - and it worked!

Once the installation was complete, the familiar Windows Live Messenger icon was displayed in my application list.  I entered my login and password information and waited for it to connect. After about 20 seconds the screen began to display my friends list with their display pictures and everything.  I find the application quite handy and very easy to use!  If you are a messenger fan and you have a BlackBerry, I strongly encourage you to download this app.

Have you seen it?  If you haven't, I encourage you to head on over to http://mojaveexperiment.com/ where you can witness the awe and might that is science.  Or something.  Too lazy to click the link?  I hear that.  Well let me give you a brief synopsis of what this is all about. 

Something you should already be aware of is the fact that Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, gets some very bad PR.  People love to talk about the hate that they have for this marvel of modern technology.  People love to loathe it.  The biggest problem, in the eyes of Microsoft, is that many of these haters have never used Vista.  They are relying on the word of others.  So Microsoft did what any noble software company would do, they tricked some people into using their product.  Enter Mojave. 

Mojave is the fictional operating system of the future, the next life changing package from the Microsoft machine.  Mojave is everything you ever imagined in an OS and more!  They brought all kinds of people in to do a consumer level taste test on the new product.  The catch?  It's simply Vista in disguise.  The results?  Astounding. 

Many of the users are recorded saying negative things about Vista, however after trying out the new Mojave product they are very eager to upgrade and get this latest offering.  Every single on of them is in shock when they find out it's really just Vista.  They talk about how easy it is to use and how finely tuned it appears.  It really is some marketing goodness on Microsoft's part.

As pointed out by Wil Shipley on his blog over at Call Me Fishmeal, there are four main flaws to this experiment.

The Placebo Effect

• People hyping up the results in their mind because something is new and improved.

The Pepsi Challenge Effect

• When sampling a small portion of something, it's easy to be won over by the look and feel, but the whole package might not be so good.

The Perfectly Controlled Experiment Effect

• Microsoft set up the hardware and picked the software and accessories - no doubt the most compatible that they could find.  Experts controlled the experiment from beginning to end. 

The Personal Tutor Effect

• When you sit someone down, walk them through using it, and answer all of their questions - they are likely to have a good report to give.

Personally, I was amused by the whole thing.  I am unable to avoid the Microsoft machine as I have a close working relationship with them through the company that I work for.  The one thing I did get really riled about is the fact that the site was built in Flash.  What gives?  Silverlight is on version 2 now, who at Microsoft is still supporting the competitor?

It's shameful to admit, but I'm one of those people who can't drive stick.  Manual transmission vehicles have scared the hell out of me for most of my driving life.  I've avoided them like the plague - that is until a couple of years ago when my girlfriend decided to teach me.  It was embarrassing, but we spent many a night in a large, empty parking lot just practicing to get the feel for it.  Now, it would be good to note that driving in general is pretty easy for me.  At the point where I started to learn how to drive stick, I had been driving automatics for about 10 years.

I ended that learning campaign on a high note, with a complete trek across town.  If memory serves me, I only stalled it once on that trip.  For some reason which is failing my memory now, I gave up driving the standard car after that trip.  Fast forward a couple of years to today.  I recently replaced my Saturn Ion with a new Chevy Colorado pickup truck.  Still automatic, but much more fun!  The problem is that I bought it right as gas prices started to go through the roof.  Well, we still have our manual Saturn, so it became obvious that we could save some fuel costs by carpooling and taking the Saturn to work.  The only problem is that the logistics require me to drop my spouse off first, then continue on to work.  Eek!

So, I decided that tonight was the night and I once again got behind the wheel.  It took me a good half hour to remember everything and I asked a great number of questions.  In the end, I drove around town and down some back roads where I only stalled a handful of times.  I also managed to make the car jerk forward and back quite heavily a couple of times.  My biggest challenge is first gear.  Everything else is relatively easy.  After sever attempts at starting from the stop position, I discovered that it's mostly about giving a little gas, then slowly letting off of the clutch.  Real slow.  It's a good thing I didn't stop on any hills, I probably would have rolled into somebody.  I guess that is what I will work on next!

For the past two years I have struggled with being a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2000 and 2005 administrator.  A lack of tools makes managing enterprise implementations of this product very challenging at best.  Our setup consists of four individual instances of SQL Reporting Servers 2005 (upgraded last year from 2000).  This includes environments for development, quality testing, user testing, and production.

Having multiple environments creates the first problem - how do we migrate or promote large quantities of reports from one environment to the next?  The second largest problem that we face is updating the data source for each report once promoted.  This isn't for every case, but it does happen on a regular basis.  A couple of days ago I had enough with the frustrations and went on the hunt for a new tool to help us out.

I looked at command line tools and GUI based tools and finally I stumbled upon SSRS Explorer on CodePlex. This tool covers them all - SQL 2000, 2005, and 2008.  SSRS Explorer makes your implementation easy to navigate by creating an explorer style view of each instance you connect to.  You can simply highlight and right-click a group of reports that you wish to download, then connect to the next instance and bulk upload them.  Easy as that.

You can also select multiple reports and then set the data source for all of them, which sure beats loading up the details of each report through the browser and manually setting the new data source.  The tool also allows you to download folders, so that you can recreate the folder structure somewhere else.  Each object in the explorer allows you to view its properties and permissions, making administration a snap. 

You can also create, delete, and rename folders, reports, and data sources.  Don't take my word for it - try it out!

When Anna Patterson created her last Internet search engine in 2004, it was so good that Google promptly bought the technology and incorporated it into their own system.  Now, four years later, Anna is at it again.  She believes that she has designed and built an even better search engine - only this one isn't for sale.  Enter Cuil.com

Rather than living off the small fortune that the new search engine design could pull in if placed on the open market, Anna intends to upstage Google and create a better way of life for web surfers all around the globe.  The first claim de fame for the new site is a 120 billion page index.  While there are no current numbers on Googles index size, the last reported information from three years ago showed the search giants catalog sitting at 8.2 billion web pages.

Google doesn't seem phased by this new competitor though.  Personally, I don't think they should be.  While Cuil.com may offer a nicer looking search page, it just doesn't deliver.  Even with $33 million in venture capital, the startup is unable to handle the current load of users.  Messages range from "No results found" to "This page cannot be displayed".  Between failures, while I could get some results, the majority were bogus links that took me to very irrelevant pages.  More frustrating was the fact that the Cuil engine told me that it had discovered 64 results, however it only displayed 7 of them and there were no additional pages to see more results.

As much as I hope this engine gets better, they are off to a rocky start.  I imagine that many users will never go back to the site after the poor experience this morning.  It always pays to estimate your user load on the high side, you never know when your story might break national news.

That was the headline from an article I read this evening over at TorrentFreak.com.  It never ceases to amaze me just how low people will go.  Don't get your panties in a bunch, this is NOT an anti-piracy rant.  Instead, it is a rant about idiots.

Imagine for just a moment that you are interested in seeing The Dark Night (not that tough to imagine for many of you).  Now stop and think about why it is you want to see it.  Likely you will come up with an answer that is something like - great plot, awesome special effects, big names, big fan.  The list could go on for a while.  The trick is to now think about the sound and video quality of the movie after it is recorded with a handled camcorder in a dark theatre.  It's going to suck.

Case in point, only an idiot would put himself at that must risk to film such a movie.  So much quality is lost.  I totally get the DVDrip guys.  They rip a DVD quality video, so that any user gets the same experience with the pirated video as they would with the actual DVD.  Screeners is another one that I kinda get.  You take a movie like the Dark Night, that a tonne of people want to see, and make the DVD screener available and you are going to be worth gold.  See a screener is a DVD quality video that is somehow marked and made available for award show review.  Could be the Academy Awards or some other variant.  The video is usually marked with an annoying message scrolling across the bottom of the screen, or sections of the movie become black and white for a few minutes at a time.  Again, these make sense because they only have limited quality reduction.

I ask all of you out there that are planning to take your camcorder to the movies to just stop and think about it.  All you are doing is hurting the bandwidth for good downloads and other Internet traffic with your horrid and un-watchable video.  If you make the choice to proceed, I hope you suffer the same fate as the guy who tried to film The Dark Night.  They should throw you in prison, not for pirating, but of simply being that stupid.

Let me start out by saying that I'm a big fan of garage sales.  There, I did it.  There are many a great deal to be had at yard sales the world over.  I remember my dad gathering the list of garage sales from the paper on Saturday morning and heading out very early to get the best selection.  He's not alone.  There is a small army of people in every city that do this regularly.  They get some great stuff at discount prices too.  The garage sale is a great way to clean out your homestead and get rid of stuff you just don't need anymore, while making a few dollars off of it.

When I moved into my first apartment, I am pretty sure most of it was furnished with stuff my dad either found at a yard sale, or stuff he was getting rid of because he traded up to his yard sale winnings.  I should also note that my dad is the guy you don't want at your yard sale.  He's the guy that sees something with a $10 sticker on it and will offer .25 cents.  He's got a gift for it and will most often get it for .50 cents.  It's insane. 

Yard sales are more than just cheap junk.  They are a very social event where family and neighbours get together and socialize while they make a few bucks.  Old friends and distant relatives often show up to have a chat while they check out the inventory of stuff you are getting rid of.  Yep, that is what makes the yard sale great.  Now my wife on the other hand is not a fan of the yard sale and I get it.  She sees the dirtiest of the dirties crawl out of their holes and try to get everything for nothing.  She was there a couple of years ago when a woman bought some computer speakers from me, and then came back the next day looking for some tech support.  It would seem she had no idea what to do with them.  Who does that?

Well, next weekend is the big yard sale at my parents place, and I am looking forward to it!

This past week I bought my first RV.  I have to warn you though, it is not as exciting as you might be thinking.  While perusing an online marketplace, I came across a great deal on an older model pop-up trailer.  The ad said that it was a 1980 Starcraft pop-up and that it was in decent shape.  It had a couple of pictures and the family was overjoyed to go and look at it. 

When we showed up to view it, the owner walk us through what it had and how it worked.  He was also nice enough to point out all of the things that he new would require repair.  The biggest item was the lift system that raised the roof up.  The cables were broken on both posts on the left side.  He showed me how to get it up without the cables and indicated that there was new cables in the camper waiting to be installed.  He explained that the electrical system worked, but was unsure about the plumbing or refrigerator, as he had never used these items.

After some discussion (and some pushing from the family), we agreed to a price and took the trailer home that night.  Lucky for me I have a 2007 Chevy Colorado with a Class 3 towing package and it had no problem pulling the 11 foot trailer.  Backing up with an 11 foot trailer was a whole different adventure.  You see, I have a relatively long driveway that is about one car wide that opens up to a double car garage at the rear of my property.  After a number of tries (and a big help from the family) we finally got the trailer parked in the driveway.

I was anxious to start on the lift system repairs, however I wanted to put the trailer into the garage to work on it.  New problem.  The garage was FULL of junk.  After a couple of days of cleaning and organizing, I had enough room cleared to park the trailer and started a new adventure to get the trailer into the garage.  I used the truck to get the trailer as far into the garage as possible, then we worked on manually manoeuvring it into the proper position.  I commented on how it would be easier if there was a dolly type wheel on the front of the trailer, however there was only a pole.  Eventually we invented a system using a furniture dolly and got it parked.  After that, we just through some elbow grease into it and got it into the raised position.  You will never guess what I found in the camper after all of that...

The front WHEEL!

Seems it just wasn't attached.  Anyway, we started to gut the trailer to complete the repairs and I will create some future posts with pictures on just what we have done.  Can't wait for the first camping trip!

As submitted to http://acanac.org/blogs/geek/

Yesterday I was working on some changes to a web site when I hit a brick wall.  The site wouldn't load without displaying some crazy and misleading error messages.  The messages were talking about something to do with configuration, and since this was a .Net web site, I figured I would start with the Web.Config.  I had the new web.config which was created by a third party, and I had the old web.config which I had intelligently backed up - but I needed to understand what was different between them.

Now, I am no stranger to comparison tools, however I have never found one that I was truly happy with.  So, I did what any hardcore Internet junkie would do, I started to Google 'text file comparison tools'.  One of the first hits that I came across was WinMerge.  Straight from their website - WinMerge is an Open Source (GPL) visual text file differencing and merging tool for windows.  That was a mouthful.  Quite simply, it does what you expect it to.  Once you install the latest version and launch the application, you can open up the two files that you wish to compare.  WinMerge opens the files side-by-side and highlights for you the lines that have differences.  You can choose to merge lines from one side to the other, or simply ignore them, depending on your needs.

WinMerge is a flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word wrap.  It can handle DOS, UNIX and MAC text file formats and offers Unicode support.  You can also integrate the application into the shell so that your right-click will allow you to open files for comparison.  Plugin support brings many options for improving and customizing this app.  Get your copy today, you won't be disappointed.

In a recent article that I read in Information week, Microsoft has stated that Windows Server 2008 cuts power consumption by 10% over the previous Windows Server 2003 operating system.  Server administrators and financial officers the world over will be ecstatic to find that the newest enterprise-class server operating system from Microsoft running with 20 active clients could save around $30 in power costs over the course of a year.  Wow!

Now you may not think that $30 is all that exciting.  At first glance I didn't.  Then I did the math.  My current employer has about 120 Windows 2003 servers.  With that many servers saving $30 per year, an upgrade to the new OS could save us $3600.  Against our million dollar operating budget - that's huge.  Ok, while I may be exaggerating a bit, savings are savings.  In today's corporate cut-throat world, and with the soaring cost of electricity, every penny counts.  What's more, you will be doing your part to green up the earth and ease the stress on the electricity networks during peak load times.

The article also speaks to virtualization as a means to save money on power consumption.  Hold on there cowboy!

In theory, running multiple server instances on one box equates to power consumption for one server, and the rest are virtually free.  Hmmm wouldn't the hardware be required to do more work, thus increasing the power consumption requirements?  That is absolutely correct.  Tack onto that the increase overhead of virtualization which includes added complexity, additional support staff, increased downtime, exponential growth in risk factor, and decreased performance.  Virtual doesn't look so appealing after all.

All in all, I wouldn't rush out to buy Server 2008 for the power savings.  I would recommend it for all of the other great stuff it provides over the previous family of Windows Server products.  You can read about some of the great reasons to upgrade at Microsoft's Why Upgrade? site.

I love to hear glorious fables about this great and free nation that we reside in.  Don't you?  It's wonderful to have all of this "freedom".  It's great to know that we are so much better off because we here in North America have such fundamental freedoms as religion, speech, choice, and others.  It's super great to realize that we are not controlled at all.

In case that went over your head, the entire first paragraph was sarcasm. 

Open your eyes.  This is not a free country.  Quite the contrary, it's an expensive country.  The United States and Canada are two of the most expensive countries in the world to live in.  Income tax alone is rampant and can hit as high as 45%.  That's disgusting.  Why do we allow our governments to take our hard earned money?  What do we get in return?  All we do is line the pockets of lying politicians who look out for their own vested interests.  The needs of the people are ignored.

Do you own your home?  If you do, you are one of the lucky few.  If you don't, then you are a slave to the housing system where you either pay rent to line someone pockets, or you pay huge interest on your mortgage to help the conglomerate banks get richer.  Even if you do own your home, you still have to pay property tax.  My taxes are around $2800 per year and what do I get for that?  Garbage men who leave little tags on my garbage to tell me that I put too many bags out, snow plows that come three days after the winter storm, and a street full of potholes that Motocross racers would be ashamed to ride on.  I have a meter on my water line to measure how much I use so that I can be billed accordingly.  Likewise for the hydro and natural gas.  These are essential services, yet they are not free.

My truck cost a ridiculous amount of money and consumes incredible amounts of fuel.  I'm no saint, that's for sure.  Yet the greedy oil barons jack the prices of fuel up to line their pockets while the economy suffers.  Transport truck drivers can no longer afford to haul the consumables that we hold near and dear.  The government takes a large share of the gasoline revenue.  Where does it end?  Insurance, telephones, Internet, cable TV, satellite, groceries, hydro, water, heating, vehicles, daycare....  this country is anything but free.

This weekend I had the dubious of honour of hosting some very important guests.  A couple of months back I received an out-of-the-blue telephone call from my childhood best friend.  We haven't really been in touch for 15 years, aside from a short visit about 12 years ago.  I really can't tell you why that is, I believe it was mostly just circumstance.  We lived in separate ends of the province and neither of us made the valiant effort to keep in touch. 

As kids we were inseparable.  We spent every day together, had sleep-overs every weekend, and often got into trouble together.  Well, time has aged us, but it hasn't changed us.  We get along as though we were just a week ago.  My friend and his wife embarked on the four hour drive to my house and arrived late Friday evening with the most adorable Shih-Tzu I have ever seen.  I had never met his wife before, yet I can say that she impressed me.  She was very real.  That's an odd thing to say, isn't it?  What I mean is that she was down to earth and what you see is what you get.  Very easy to get along with and a perfect match for him. 

My friend hadn't changed one bit.  He looked almost the same as the last time I saw him.  Same facial features, same style of clothes, same great sense of humour and comradery.  We stayed up Friday night to have some drinks and reminisce.  The story from our past are always a good laugh and seem to get funnier the older we get.  Saturday we did some running around, then hit the Go-Kart track from some good ole racing fun.  After that it was back home for some drinks and some fights as we watched Forrest Griffin become the Light Heavyweight UFC World Champion.  Fight night was the typical house party with all of our current friends, with the awesome exception of mixing in old friends.  To finish off, we opted for some late night swimming and some IT Crowd before calling it a night.

They packed up and were headed home on Sunday and I must say that it was sad to see him go.  Time had not taken a toll on our friendship in any way, shape, or form.  We picked up right where we left off and I'll be planning a road trip to get up to his place in a few weeks.  If you made it through this post and stuck with me right to the end, then I leave you with this thought.  Never forget the importance of friends and remember that it is never too late to reconnect.

And now for something completely different, well not really.  It's another rant, but I do feel it is justified.  This rant is all about the people who make a disgustingly good living doing things that just don't really matter.  Yes athletes and entertainers, I mean you.

I love to debate with people.  Anyone who knows me can attest to this.  One of my favorite topics is about sports.  People assume that because I have no interest in sports that I must hate them because I am poor at them.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  I hate sports because they represent a part of society that sickens me.  Team sports are supposed to be about a group of people coming together to overcome challenges, yet have to been to a organized hockey game lately?  You have to be the best of the best or you don't make the team.  Hockey parents force their kids to spend ridiculous amounts of hours at the arena and for what?  Possible because they think their kid is good enough to play professionally.  Maybe their kid will be the next superstar making $20 million a year for their "skills" in the arena or stadium.  And that makes my case.  $20 million is a lot of money to make for skating around or swinging a bat.

There are doctors in this world who work day in and day out to find a cure for cancer or aids.  Miracle workers who fight for funding and if they get lucky, they might bring home a couple hundred thousand dollars a year.  In comparison, how do we pay someone who makes miracles happens so little, while we pay the kid that can skate so much.  What does he do for society?  He gives us something to do in our spare time.  Now I am no charity machine, but if we are that bored as a society, couldn't we use those billions of dollars that we throw away every year for something better?  Like solving the homeless problem or the disgusting cost of fuel problem.  Maybe the people that pay these salaries could have big money bonfires to keep the homeless warm.

Don't think that I am just hating on athletes either.  Entertainers are in the same boat.  We pay millions of dollars for one big name actor to pretend to be someone else on the big screen.  Again, I have to ask if these people are worth more than the geniuses that make society better by solving the problems in the world today.  I would love to see the statistics on how much of these inflated salaries is spent on drug and alcohol abuse.  It's in the paper almost daily, so we know that it's happening.  I love to see things like actresses who think they are somehow better than everyone else and turn their nose up at the commoners of society.  Newsflash, you are human like the rest of us, you just don't mind exploiting or being exploited.

Just to end on a more positive note, I don't hate all entertainers and athletes.  I do respect the hard work that goes into becoming good at your trade.  I do appreciate the long hours you put into the arena and the sleepless nights practicing your new movie part.  I just don't respect how you will accept such copious amounts of money for it.  So for those of you that do it for the love of doing it - this rant is not about you.  For those of you that sign every autograph and treat your fans as they should be - your bread and butter - I am proud of you.  Please don't fall to the dark side.

A couple days ago I enjoyed a 'not really worth the money' meal at a new restaurant in town.  That part doesn't bother me too much.  You have to try it to hate it.  The part that did bother me was paying the bill and adding the expected tip to it.  When did we become a mandatory tip country?  Why is there this expectation of additional gratuities?  Do we not pay these workers a salary?  If they don't get enough, they should go back to school and get a better paying job.

On the particular evening referred to above, our waitress wasn't horrible - she just wasn't great.  She made a couple of statements that she had to backtrack on later because she lacked the information necessary to do her job well.  She was nice enough, but failed to notice the large and bright cherry tomatoes on the meal that I had ordered without tomatoes.  She also failed to notice the pile of caramelized onions on the same dish that I had also asked to have no onions on.  Now I could appreciate her lack of memory if the place was busy, but it wasn't.  There was maybe 3 tables that she was managing and certainly no rush crowd inbound.  She insisted to me that she had told the kitchen "no tomatoes or onions" and that they had messed up.  Pass the blame.  Nice.

I could appreciate that the kitchen messed up, but why didn't she check it before she brought it out.  That would have been extraordinary service that would have warranted a little extra money.  That just didn't happen though.  The the night was filled with mediocre service and I didn't feel she deserved any extra.  Yet there I was, faced with the bill and a dilemma.  Do I tip her and if so, how much?  I left the standard 15%, so as not to be that guy that doesn't tip.  Although, that left me feeling a little bit angry.  Why is it that I have to conform to the pressures of society?  A tip should be earned, not expected.  I don't want to pay a bell hop to carry my bags to my room, that is his job.  I don't want to pay a waitress to serve me my food, that is their job.  I certainly don't mind offering someone a little something when they do more than their job calls for, but in this day and age, it's less than likely.

Back to TPB though, the boys were hilarious.  Lahey (John Dunsworth) and Randy (Pat Roach) are very in tune with the audience and they play right into it.  Audience participation was a big part of their show.  I laughed for the whole hour that they were on stage.  After the show we hung around for some autographs - which worked out perfect.  You see, my friends and I got to the line up late, so we were at the end.  Well once we finally got to the guys, they signed up the shirt I was wearing and a picture that we bought - then they hung out for a bit.  Well Lahey hung out for a bit, Randy disappeared into the back, probably looking for some cheeseburgers.  His gut was bigger than ever.  I have trouble imagining what it is like to have your gut be your claim de fame.

One great and memorable moment from the night was an audience contest to find the biggest guy and win a t-shirt.  A very large man went up last and when Randy wrapped the measuring tape around his gut, he shouted out "Frig Mr. Lahey, It took the whole tape!"  That was pretty funny.  They also did a segment called Buttman and Robin where they dressed up like super heros, probably a play at the Blandford Recreational Facility.  Thanks for making my night guys!

What I came up with brought back the eliminated system, which totally messed up my plan to green up my server room.  lol

Back to yesterday...  I rebuilt the old AMD 1200+ system with the IDE drives and got ready to learn about FreeNAS.  FreeNAS is a free NAS server built on the FreeBSD platform.  One of the great things about it is that it runs from a CD.  You basically just plug a small USB key into the system to write server configuration to, then set the bios to boot from CD.  It's as simple as that.  Well, there might be a few extra steps, but not many!  When you boot it up for the first time, you have to use a console to complete some very basic setup.  Using the menu based system you can assign an interface and setup you IP address.  Once that is complete, simply load the web interface from any browser on your network and finish the configuration.  I won't get into all of the details here, the FreeNAS wiki has all you need to get up and running. 

FreeNAS will allow you to connect to a domain or run standalone.  It also works with multiple file systems.  I added one UFS drive and two NTFS drives and it had no problem with either of them.  The system will monitor the drives using S.M.A.R.T. and email you if there are any problems.  It literally took just over an hour to get the whole thing going and configured just the way I wanted it.  If you are in the market for a NAS setup, I strongly recommend checking it out!

He bought a DIY shed kit.

And so began one of the coolest home office projects that I have ever seen.  Behind his garage was a 10' x 17' concrete slab that he wasn't doing anything with and it was the perfect location for adding a shed.  He purchased an 8' x 15' Standard Ranch Storage Building from a company called Tuff Shed and his new office was born.  The guys from Tuff Shed even assembled it for him.  As you can imagine, sheds are great for lawn mowers, but don't make for very good living space.  Brian put in some insulation, drywall and carpet to give it a more comfortable feel.  He wired the shed completely with power, networking, audio and lighting - making it no different that any other room in the house.  He also notes that he is less tempted to work after hours on a "quick email" because of the commute through the back yard.  Check out Brian's full article here and also his home office photo gallery here.

I read a great article over at Yahoo! Autos about the 3000 Mile Oil Change Myth.  I always thought that the need to change the oil every 5000 kilometres was a load of crap.  I've never really been good at getting my oil changes done one time anyway, but it wasn't until some friends and I bought three new Saturn Ions a few years ago that I started to see the holes in the myth. 

The sales guy at Saturn had told us that the car will notify us when it is time to get the oil changed via an in-dash display.  Being a new car, at about 5000 km, I decided to get the oil changed anyway regardless of the fact that the car didn't notify me of any such requirement.  One of my friends who also bought a new car decided he would wait until notification before getting his done.  To our shock and amazement, the car was up around 12000 kilometres before he notification was displayed.

I thought that 12000 seemed incredibly high when compared to the 5000 that I have been hearing about for my whole life.  It can't really be disputed though.  My spouse has driven her car well above the 5000 km mark and never actually received the change notification.  Probably good to note that she did have her oil changed based on her own gut feelings and never let the car go 12000 to test the system.  This relatively common oil monitoring system can be found in most new cars.  Sensors inside the engine monitor the amount of impurities in the engine oil and notify the driver when thresholds are surpassed.  It's quite brilliant and long overdue.

So when I read the aforementioned article, I felt vindicated for having the doubts that I did in the oil change myth.  Here is a quote from Yahoo! autos - I encourage you to read the full article.

It’s been a misconception for years that engine oil should be changed every 3000 miles, even though most auto manufacturers now recommend oil changes at 5,000, 7,000, or even 10,000 mile intervals under normal driving conditions.

Greatly improved oils, including synthetic oils, coupled with better engines mean longer spans between oil changes without harming an engine. The 3000 mile interval is a carryover from days when engines used single-grade, non-detergent oils.

I've never really written a lot about my media center PC, but I hope to start doing more with it in the near future.  This post is more of a post about frustration and problem solving than anything else.  You see, tonight was the season finale of the Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV and I was really looking forward to watching it...

The story really begins yesterday when I arrived home from work and wanted to watch and episode of the show that I had previously PVR'd.  I turned on the TV and was mortified to find that my Vista Home media center had locked up.  No response from the keyboard or mouse at all.  My immediate reaction was to reboot the machine.  This resulted in me staring at a blinking, flat cursor in the top left corner of a black screen.  That's not good.  Reboot again.  The bios POSTed, the keyboard was responsive, but again the screen went to a blinking cursor and stayed there for the 15 minutes I let it run.  Since I had dinner plans, I had to leave it for the night and get back to it today.

Just to give you a better picture of my setup, it looks like this:

• Vista Home Premium based MCE
• ASUS K8S-MX mainboard
• 1.5GB DDR 400 (PC3200)
• 40GB Western Digital SATA Primary Drive
• 200GB Maxtor IDE Secondary Drive
• LG SATA DVD RW
• ATI Radeon 9800 AGP Video Card

So today I got back to it with just an hour to spare before the show.  I did some testing and discovered that I could boot from a CD, so the system was semi responsive.  I read a bunch of forum posts to no avail and finally decided to take it back to basics.  I pulled the box apart and reseated every card and cable.  Put it all back together, fired it up, and was overjoyed at the menu asking if I wanted to boot to safe mode.  I did.  I like to boot into safe mode after dealing with a crash just to let Windows ease into it.  After safe mode, I restarted the system and started to get some odd coloured blue screens with no writing, then continuous reboots.  That's not good either.

I rebooted one more time and pressed F8 repeatedly until I got a menu screen.  I then selected the option to "Load Windows from last known good configuration".  This is a great option and totally did the trick.  Windows came up and I was able to ascertain that Windows Update had done some updates which caused the system to lock up.

A new old problem occurred after the system came back up.  I found myself without sound again.  This seems to be a problem with the ASUS K8S-MX onboard sound.  I have to keep reinstalling that driver.  I'll keep working on finding a fix and that will be the topic for a future blog.  Gotta go, the finale is on now!

On the being a step-father note, I think being a father is a lot like being a millionaire.  There are generally two types of millionaires.  The first type works very hard every day of their life to earn and keep those millions.  The second type either inherits the millions of wins the lottery, thus negating all of the hard work.  Now I know what you are thinking, but being the step-father isn't like winning the millions.  In fact, it's a much harder gig.  You have to earn the trust and respect of the children and it's quite an uphill battle.  You also have to consistently fight the claims that you are not the children's "father". 

Back to my point on millionaires, there is no direct lines to being a farther or step-father.  The lines are drawn between the men who work hard and sacrifice themselves to be there for the kids and support them, as opposed to the men who barely make time for the kids.  Pretty much anyone can be a donor, but it takes someone special to be a dad.  I could never imagine telling my girls that I wasn't going to be there for them because I had some extra-curricular sport a few times a week.  And if I was ever in the situation of only seeing them on every other weekend, I would never sacrifice any of that time for sports or other selfish things, that is just ludicrous.  Generally speaking, the hard working millionaires don't want anything to do with the inheritors or the lottery winners.  They view them as miscreants who don't deserve to be in the millionaire club.  Well guess what, the real dads out there don't think the wanna-be fathers deserve to be in the club either.

So this Father's Day cheers goes out to all of the hard working and dedicated fathers.  And if you are a step-father, don't let anyone take that prize away from you.  I can tell you that being a step-father is as equally rewarding as being a biological father, if not more.  I'm off to enjoy my children for what time I can, because they truly make my world go round.  I couldn't feel any more joy in this world than the joy they deliver to me.  Thanks girls!  Happy Father's Day everyone!

So the strategy is simple.  Do what an IT guy in a small company would normally do, score points for it, and then drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid.  ServerQuest was actually created by Microsoft to promote their TechNet service.  The blocky graphics, midi soundtrack, and off-beat sense of humour really took me back a good 15 years.  It was like I was on that Commodore 64 again.  If you don't try this game, you are not a geek. 

You play Matt Berg, the IT guy for a small officer who is introduced to the hot new security officer - Alicia Thornber.  Just like a typical IT dream, she loves reading tech manuals and playing MMORPGs.  The office also has the typical array of IT disabled staffers.  Chase Carpenter is one such staffer, and the sales guy from hell.  He is the enemy of IT - often trying to get in your way or creating IT disasters in an oblivious sort of innocence.  You have to keep the office running smoothly to score big points.  This involves a bunch of highly technical Microsoft quizzes and cheesy arcade type IT games.  Remember though - Click on Everything!  You get points for being a bit of an adventurer.  Clicking TechNet links within the game also scores some decent points.  You'll need 3000 out of 4800 to win this one. 

After playing it a couple of times, I can only conclude that real IT people designed it.  Check it out at http://www.server-quest.com/ .

The other day I received an email from a fellow IT aficionado with the screenshot shown below and a link to a great product that lets you do all kinds of great things with desktop wallpaper in Windows.  The product is called John's Background Switcher.  John's website demonstrates the main feature of this handy little application as being able to periodically change up your wallpaper much like a slideshow.  You can specify individual files on your computer, complete folders, Flickr photo sharing, Phanfare web albums, smugmug photo galleries, Picasa Web Albums, or Yahoo! image search.  I'm not sure which operating systems support this tool, but Vista Ultimate (SP1) certainly does!

This handy little tool sits in your system tray and changes your background based on the timed interval that you set.  It also offers something called a Snapshot Scrapbook of photos thrown across your desktop.  The settings dialog is very straight forward and simple to use.  What was really nice for me though, is that this application lets me run a different wallpaper on each of my monitors in my dual display configuration.  Well, not just that.  I can also use one picture that spans across both monitors.  It is truly incredible.  All I had to do was add two pictures to list and select "show different images on each monitor" from the drop down list.  It couldn't be any more simple than that.

My favorite part of this app is that it's free!  You can download the latest version (Version 3.3 at press time) by visiting John's download site.  If you run into any trouble, simply head on over to John's Support Forum for some assistance.  If you are picture happy, or just a geek, I strongly recommend that you download this very sweet tool as soon as possible.