Apparently, March is the month of moves and potential moves. Back in January, I was looking at the possibility of returning to Canada and right away diving into a move of my own. At the same time, Jessica has been building up to her own move. Mine fell through, but in this last week of February, hers is in full swing. To the tune of several dozen boxes, storage bins, and various other containerlike objects that can and will be used as packing boxes (thanks, Heather, by the way). This tiny apartment almost looks like it would be cramped with all the packing materials that have yet to actually be turned into things what contain personal belongings. It’s extremely odd to think in a week from now, most of this stuff will be exactly where it should be in the new place. And I’ll have been here to make absolute sure it gets there. I guess I’m participating in a March move after all–just not my own. Hey, whatever works. Now where’d I put that roll of packing tape?
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Moving week festivities. Or somesuch.
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Popular posts (January, 2010).
Last month was by no means a busy posting month on account of I was way, way, way too busy ducking several dozen different variety of curve ball. Still, I posted quite a bit, and yall found other stuff to read when I wasn’t. Here’s what you found interesting in January, as always, courtesy Google Analytics.
- Canada Post has recently picked up this nasty habbit of being horribly broken in the accessibility department. It got pointed out to them, twice. They’re still inaccessible–and now, trying for incompitent. Another round may be in our future.
- Canada’s telecommunications regulator, the CRTC, very nearly broke the internet. They were called out by several thousand in various ways, shapes and forms. I was one of them. I still have yet to deconstruct what happened after the backlash–look for that sometime next week.
- I don’t subscribe to a lot of the idea behind Valentines day, usually, But even I wouldn’t push to make it illegal. They did in Iran. It’s number 4 on the list for January, but it’ll probably be higher in February. You can always count on a third-world whackjob to generate traffick.
- My former ISP, TekSavvy, has been on a fast track down hill in recent months. Screwing up activations, delivering misleading information, advertising staffers with more influence than they actually have–they’ve done it all. Including putting customers over a barel in emergency situations–and not much caring that they’ve just put customers over a barel in an emergency situation.
- Ottawa’s had a 211 call and complain line for like ever. And if there’s even the slightest problem warranting a gentle tap on the shoulder, the locals get all uppity and start bitching at that number. OC Transpo running 5 minutes late? Call and bitch at 211. Don’t like your new higher property taxes (I’ll rant about *that* later.)? Call and bitch at 211. And now, the Pembroke/Refrew area has its very own. Lovely. Give people with no problem bitching a call and bitch number, they’ll call and bitch. A lot. About everything. Good going, Renfrew County.<
Not bad for a niggling little blog who maybe gets 20 readers a day at its very consistent best. February will probably be just as interesting–and I haven’t even been through all my mockery yet. Watch this space–um, next week or so.
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OC Transpo flips off the community, doesn’t want you to actually find your bus.
Now this is new. Apparently, an Algonquin College student came up with a mobile application, available at whereismybus.ca, that uses GPS data to determine in realtime where your particular bus is. That data was apparently publicly available from OC Transpo. Was, at least, until a few days after the application was released. OC Transpo then rather quickly said thanks, but no, and yanked the GPS data–thus pretty much killing that application. Awesome. So now not only are they talking about cutting services and tweaking their brand, but they’ve decided you don’t get to actually find out about the services that aren’t being cut and how long it’ll take for them to actually get to you. Nice work, OC Transpo. Way to justify increasing user fees. Yeah, I feel like taking up riding again.
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Glen Beck just needs to retire. Now Google’s a government conspiracy.
Until recently, I always thought Glen Beck was just old and loopy. More loopy than old. Now, I’m convinced the man’s old, loopy and maybe a little senile. He’s decided, according to Slashdot, that while research is perfectly okay, research on Google is all kinds of evil. According to the article, Google’s in bed with the government. Among his evidence against Google is the fact the director of Google Ideas used to work for the state, and Google had some involvement with the protests in Iran last year. All funky suspicious stuff, according to Beck. When you start seeing this many government conspiracies on this little evidence, it’s really high time to seriously give some thought to retirement. *Prompt* retirement. Just a suggestion, Glen. Take it or leave it. Or just leave.
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We still know what to do with that first rounder, right?
Okay. So. While I was out having fun last night, the Leafs related internet virtually blew up all over the place. We traded Chris Versteeg yesterday for a first rounder, a third rounder, and some guy who’s name escapes me at the moment. We know what to do with the third round pick–usually waste it on someone who’ll never see the light of day. But do we still remember what to do with the first round one? Last time we had a halfway decent pick in that round, we auctioned it off for Kessel. Which, okay, nice shot, but I dunno if we’re getting our money’s worth. I can’t even remember anything else we’ve done in recent years with picks in the first round they were that good. But we didn’t have this GM for most of those years, and he at least likes to pretend to use his brain if nothing else. Steve asked yesterday if we’d even still remember what the hell to do with it. I told him then we’d at least have time to figure it out. Thinking about it now? I just hope they don’t remember what they did with the last decent one. That didn’t work quite as well as we’d hoped.
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The two-part V-day cellebration.
Part of my reasoning behind showing up in Rochester for a month, particularly this month, is the opportunity to do exactly what’s currently being done today. Sure, we don’t need a particular day to do it, but well, it’s here and we’re doing it, so draw thine own conclusions. I aranged to have a little surprise show up for Jessica at work today during a couple hours when she needed to be away from the apartment. She hasn’t had much of that done for her I don’t think, and well, it’s muchly deserved. I don’t think she disagreed, considering she showed it off apparently to a couple folks she worked with. Something else was supposed to show up for her today, but I’m going to just assume USPS decided today didn’t agree with their schedule so hopefully it’ll show up later this week. The third, now second, part of today’s activities takes place in just about an hour.
I’d seen some info on this little Italian restaurant not far from here floating around in various places, and was looking for an excuse to check it out. We’ve always had half a dozen things going on on any given day and well, the checking out of new places ends up usually getting squished off our list of things to do. So tonight, that’s being remedied. I made a place for us at Pane Vino Ristorante, which advertises itself as romantic, authentic Italian. Romantic or not, authentic or not, I’m calling it an excuse to just unwind, reset, and generally not have to actually do any work for our food. Not unlike the insanity of Saturday, except with about 10 less people. It’s a thing we try to do, usually somewhere a little more familiar than this, at least once while we’re together. This time just so happens to fall on a day when you’re theoretically supposed to do stuff like that, but oh well, whatcha gonna do? It’ll be nice, though, to actually just take an evening and be easy about it. The fact that I know it’ll help her to relax more than she already is? Added bonus. Now, back to this whole getting ready to leave thing.
Happy Valentines day to those of you who actually observe it, for whatever reason. Happy monday to everyone else. Either way, do me a favour and crack open a cold one. I’ll try and think of you while I’m drowning in pasta. Maybe.
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Another news story points out legislating common sense doesn’t work, misses its own point.
In the year since laws were put in place here in Ontario banning texting/doing anything with technology while driving, conditions on the road and driver behaviours haven’t changed a whole lot, if at all. No one who isn’t in government really expected it to, but those laws still exist. An analysis of statistics gathered over the first year of the law’s existence reveals a total of 46000 or so tickets issued for texting while driving, averaging roughly 100 per day in that time. And yet, the majority still do it nearly every chance they get. And people still bitch about it every chance they get. The article goes on to point out–in rather obvious fashion–that the law forbids use of anything from your iPod to your laptop to your iPhone while driving, but law or no law, it’s done very little to actually curb the act.
It’s hardly just an Ontario/Canadian thing. Just about everywhere, on both sides of the border, people are coming to the realization that laws banning texting while driving don’t do anything but make governments money. And yet in most if not all places affected, those laws still exist–and some are getting a little more strict about it. Accident rates haven’t dropped, people aren’t any more likely to pay attention to the law unless there’s a cop tailing them, and it’s just one more thing to not be very easy to actually enforce.
Yes, in theory, the laws were a good idea–in most cases, phone in hand plus moving vehicle equals generally not recommended. You get distracted doing what you’re doing, and not paying attention to what’s going on outside the vehicle, and problems come up. But you can’t legislate inteligence and/or common sense into people. Most of the same people who do that are more than likely the same ones who apply their makeup in the car, or end up playing with the radio while going down the highway–both also things very likely to cause you and people around you problems if you’re paying more attention to that than the road. Unless these governments are about to start expanding current laws to include disallowing that, it’s probably about time for them to maybe start to clue in to the fact laws like this aren’t generally good ideas. Well, that is, unless you like periodically reading headlines about bus drivers getting caught breaking them. Which, I suppose, works if you’re looking for an excuse to get pissed. But if you actually expect things like this to do anything more than that, you’ve probably been disappointed the last year or so. Sorry to say, but unless the government invents a common sense pill, things aren’t looking up for you on that front. No thanks to texting while driving laws.
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If you must pay for stuff, pay Apple, says Apple.
Apple is not a fan of letting people do what they want with the hardware they purchased. That’s no huge secret. Now, they’re starting to become more like that with the software people purchase. The latest? In-app purchases may be on their way out. Apple is apparently looking at forcing all content purchases, IE: things you would normally buy directly from the app developer(s), through its own store. The solution? More money for Apple, less control for users/developers. The result? More people considering finding brand spanking new and interesting ways to unlock their hardware. Probably not what Apple was intending, but as the Techdirt article points out, it’s a real good way to piss people off and make them do exactly that. Way to be, Apple. I’ll just be sticking with my Nokia, now–at least until it self-bricks and I get to deal with Windows Phone 7. But that’s another entry. In the meantime, happy 89125435543 reasons to jailbreak your iThing, kids. Enjoy.
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Senator Joe Lieberman gets flipped off by the Canadian government. Again.
The US department of homeland security must really think us canucks are some bunch of evil. Every so often, somebody from that wing of the US government will float the several times over debunked myth that the Canada/US border is actually a weak point re: US security–hence why the 9/11 terrorists, according to many of these same people, were able to enter the US via Canada (they weren’t actually). The latest idea to be floated by this wing of the US government is a one-off thought that the US should require Canadians visiting to first apply for visas. The idea was floated on the US side of the border at the beginning of the month, and was very quickly–and rightly–poopooed by the Canadian immigration minister. And, surprisingly, by the liberal foreign afairs critic–who never actually agrees with any conservative government official on anything.
We already have to apply for a passport before we even think about crossing the border, which is bloody expensive enough–hi, at least $75 and that’s only if you don’t mind waiting a few weeks to actually receive it. And even that was a tiny bit of a pain in the ass to get my hands on. The wait times for those are even getting a little up there, along with some of their fees. Visas to get anywhere else generally take longer than that, and from what I hear, cost more–suddenly not so worth it if you’re only coming down here for a week or two.
Little things like this tend to escape the twitchy parts of the US government, like senator Lieberman. Fortunately the Canadian government isn’t quite so twitchy. Now, perhaps someone over in Washington will provide this unfortunate senator with a little education on just how the real world actually works. Hey, one can dream. In the meantime, keep this man away from anything to do with border security. Clearly, he know not what he do.
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Them there iPads gots minds of their own, don’t y’know.
Oh, those whacky Italian politicians. Always getting caught in all those compromising positions. And never actually willingly being party to it. Take Italian politician Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia, who just so happened to be using his iPad to review his material for the day, and these pictures of scantily clad women from a local escort service with some pretty otherworldly prices just, well, randomly appeared.
The Telegraph reports that Abbrescia didn’t deny the images on his iPad were, indeed, images of ladies who were scantily clad. The paper also reports that he didn’t deny that the ladies who were scantily clad were scantily clad on an escort site. Indeed, the magazine Oggi helpfully identified two of the ladies as Dollyy [sic] and Daisy, and mentioned consultation fees of 400 euros per hour, or the bargain price of 2,500 euros for a weekend.
Abbrescia, however, would like people to understand that he in no way premeditated his viewing of Daisy, or for that matter, of Dollyy. He reportedly said he simply had difficulty getting used to his iPad.
The Telegraph quoted Abbrescia as he outlined some of the horns of his dilemma:
“Normally I use my iPad to keep myself informed and to read the news agencies,” Abbrescia said. “But one can end up lingering over these sorts of, let’s say, pornographic images, which once in a while appear. It was just curiosity, I’ve never used the services of escort girls.”
Yep. Poor politician caught in compromising position. And all because of wicked evil technology making these, let’s say, pornographic images once in a while appear. I tell ya, that Steve Jobs is one evil bastard making these things do all that. It wouldn’t have anything to do with him possibly taking a queue or two from his party leader, now. Nope. It’s all the iPad’s fault. They’ve got minds of their own. Yeah, just stick with that line, Simeone. That’ll help ya.