daT is back

Was offline for a while, but all is now well.

Off to the races... Read More...

iPhone's Canadian debut

I'd like to put something together about this over the weekend. I can say that the Rogers stores (exclusively) were 'understocked'. Reportedly, some as low as 100 per store. Of course when sold out (and they will sell out, there is no doubt), Rogers can then go on to say that they've sold out due to the high demand.

What, too cynical?

Then there were the events of the past few days, as I posted earlier this week.

Tonight though, is my night to shoot some pool and have a couple of pints with some friends. Read More...

Bell and Telus called to task

Calling it "an ill-thought out decision", Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice has called Bell and Telus to Ottawa demanding an explanation over their decision (as I posted earlier) to begin charging customers for incoming text messages.

While I have no desire to interfere with the day-to-day business decisions of two private companies, I do have a duty as minister of industry, when necessary, to protect the interests of the consuming public...

All over the 'net. Read More...

Fathers

The following is an excerpt from Man Enough: Fathers, Sons, and the Search for Masculinity (Putnam). I 'found' it in Psychology Today, circa 1993. My son was 4 and my daughter but one. At that time I'd made the decision to be a major part of my their lives. Saying it and doing it, well, it's not as simple as that. As they age (and grow... hopefully), it is a parent's 'job' to grow with them. And I wanted it as much as they did.

This article played a role in that decision.

Perhaps it can hold some meaning for you as well.

It was written by Frank Smith Pittman, III,M.D., An American psychiatrist and author.

Fathers & Sons

We know that raising children is the central experience of life, the greatest source of self-awareness, the true fountain of pride and joy, the most eternal bond with a partner. We know that being a father is life's fullest expression of masculinity. So why did so many men forgo this for so long, and will the current crop of post-patriarchal fathers fare any better?

FOR A COUPLE OF hundred years now, each generation of fathers has passed on less and less to his sons--not just less power but less wisdom. And less love. We finally reached a point where many fathers were largely irrelevant in the lives of their sons. The baby was thrown out with the bathwater, and the pater dismissed with the patriarchy. Everyone seemed to be floundering around not knowing what to do with men or with their problematic and disoriented masculinity.

In addition, over the same 200 years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. The concept of fatherhood changed drastically after the Industrial Revolution. Economics suddenly dictated that somebody had to go out from the home to work. Men were usually chosen, since they couldn't produce milk. Maybe they would come home at night or just on weekends.

Please read the entire article at... (links to original article)

Read More...

Internet flaw could let hackers take over the Web

As reported by Tuneraider over at dslreports...

Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the World Wide Web.

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released on Tuesday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

And...

The flaw would be a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever they wanted no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

Story here, here, here and some of the unforeseen effects, here. Read More...

Apple not pleased with Rogers

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is none too pleased with Rogers iphone pricing packages. So much so that Apple has decided to not stock the iPhone in their corporate stores.

Apple, disgusted with Rogers Wireless for dumping egregious service plans on would-be iPhone 3G buyers, has decided that its Canadian retail stores will have no part in helping the carrier market the new handset to customers...

Blogs and postings on the 'net have slammed Rogers for their pricing models.

With packages starting at CDN $60 for just 400mb of data, and a mandatory 3 year contract, Canadians are so far, not impressed.

Petitions and open letters to Rogers management teams are popping up online. See here and here.

Having met Ted Rogers and had the pleasure of eating at his residence in tony Forest Hill, I can say this; Mr Rogers is no dummy. His son (Edward) though, is another matter. They've set these prices because they figure customers will pay it. This time though, they may be wrong.

Yes, the publicity of late hasn't been glowing.

Stay tuned.

Update: iPhone Atlas is now reporting that not only did Apple not plan to sell the iPhone in their corporate locations in Canada, but, they have/had no plans to sell them at any of their store outside the U.S.

The Apple/Rogers story continues, apparently. Read More...

Throttling 'illegal' says Google

CBC is reporting that Google is calling Bell's traffic management system illegal.

"Bell claims its throttling of peer-to-peer applications is a reasonable form of network management. Google respectfully disagrees. Network management does not include Canadian carriers’ blocking or degrading lawful applications that consumers wish to use," the company wrote in a 15-page submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which was made public over the weekend.

They go on;

"From consumer, competition and innovation perspectives, throttling applications that consumers choose is inconsistent with a content and application-neutral internet, and a violation of Canadian telecommunications law, which forbids unfair discrimination and undue or unreasonable preferences and requires that regulation be technologically and competitively neutral."

I guess its a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The momentum continues. Read More...

CDN cell carriers to charge for text messages

Yes, you read that right.

According to a story in the Windsor Star, Bell and Telus (and you can bet Rogers won't be far behind) will begin charging for incoming text messages starting next month.

Bell Mobility will begin charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message on Aug. 8. Telus Mobility is moving to the same billing practice effective Aug. 24. Until now, their pay-per-use customers who send text messages have been charged a 15-cent fee per message, but it hasn't cost anything to receive them.

Add this to the latest Rogers iphone pricing fiasco, and it's clear that telecommunications pricing in the Great White North continues to lag behind the ROTW.

with thanks to DR_JAYMAHDI over at dslreports for the heads up!
Read More...

PC Tech's are now P.I.'s... in the deep south

A law recently passed in Texas requires all computer-repair technicians to have a private-investigator license.

?

In order to obtain said license, technicians must receive a criminal justice degree or participate in a three-year apprenticeship. Those shops that refuse to participate will be forced to shut down. Violators of the new law can be hit with a $4,000 dollar fine and up to a year in jail, penalties that apply to customers who seek out their services.

Story here, here, here and the act here.

That's, just crazy.

Update: There is an interesting discussion here. Read More...

UFA signings

NHL free agent updates can be had here at TSN.

UPDATE:
Sundin has reportedly been offered US $20mil on a two-year pact, by the Vancouver Cancucks. As many as three other teams are after the apparent ex-Leaf Captain...

He has since gone on to say, essentially, thanks but no thanks to any and all offers. He remains undecided.

Curtis Joseph has signed a one-year deal with the Leafs for 700 grand.
Good for Cujo, and good on the Leafs...

...and Colorado has signed Darcy Tucker to a 2 year deal worth $4.5-million (which should go along nicely with his 'package' from the Leafs)...

Oh alright... Colorado also signed Andrew Raycroft at $800,000 for one year. Read More...

Hitchin' a ride to Mickey Dee's

A couple of times a year, you just have to have a Big Mac from McDonalds (see photo at right). And so it what was for me tonight. Up and out of the house to my closest Mickey Dee's. Yes, I saw that I needed gas. Still, it was a Big Mac we're talking about.

Sooo... immediately after pulling onto the main street from the drive-thru, I ran out of gas.

Pushing it off the main street, I set off gas can in hand.

After cursing to myself (and who wouldn't, really) I realized that not only do I have the walk (about 4km in total, reasonable) ahead of me, but upon my return I could look forward to eating a cold Big Mac... or two.

How to speed this process up?

Hitch-hike!

Yes, that's it! I could catch a ride (at least one way), with gas can in hand, how hard could it be?

Not a single driver stopped for me!
Was I doing something wrong? I know it had been years since I'd hitched a ride, but I did, after all, have a gas can. Wasn't it obvious what I was doing? Needing?

At least I wasn't spat upon or jeered at by passing motorists.

There was a point there where I just wanted to yell 'but I just wanted a Big Mac!'

A couple of motorcyclists pulled into a driveway, just in from of me. Um, no... idea quickly discarded. I was reminded though, of a time I (proud owner of a 1970 Norton Commando 750) rode around the same neighbourhood, showing off my new bike to a buddy... he helmetless on the back.

Yes, times have changed. For years we've been told "don't stop for hitch-hikers". They could be murderers, bank robbers, rapists.

Nothing there about not helping out your fellow man!

Upon returning to my car and again cursing over the fact I know have not only a meal that is well, 'more than likely' not good for me (ya ya... whatever) but, a cold one to boot.

I wondered though...

Starting up (that took a while, fuel pump not happy one bit) and then parking in the lot... meal in hand, I approached Mickey Dee's hungry as can be.

One of the counter drones asked me if I needed help/food/lottery tickets, or whatnot. I mumbled asking if the boss was around. She was nearby, and despite my mumbles, overheard.

After quickly explaining what happened, I popped the question.

Is there any chance of getting my meal replaced, please?

"Yea, sure" she said!

A great big thanks to Kim at my local McDonalds.

Faith in my fellow man restored?
Not so sure. Kids not liking rules/punshiment and taking their parent/parents to court... and the court backing the kid! More on that to come.
Read More...

Firefox 3...

New post here on my first impressions of Firefox 3 (yes, overall it's extension related... of course). Read More...

Tucker, Wellwood and Raycroft

Darcy Tucker has been bought out by the Leafs.

Tucker had three years remaining on his contract and Toronto will payout two-thirds over six years. Having signed a new 4 year deal just last year, this has got to hurt the team.

Still, it is another piece of the 'Muskoka Five' (the other's being Mats Sundin, Bryan McCabe, Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle... see classic Leaf slam at right, thanks to Dolighan @ the Sun) that needed to go. The hard nosed Tucker had been a Leaf for eight years now, some of that time controversial. We won't speak of the time when his cousin Shayne Corson was along for the ride. Overall though Tucker has 'brought it' to the game and I wish him and his family well, wherever they settle.

Cliff Fletcher (interim/non-interim GM of the team) called it a 'difficult decision'.


Can the same be said about Kyle Wellwood and Andrew Racycroft though. The team recently having placed forward Wellwood (just claimed by Vancouver) and goaltender Raycroft on waivers, rids the team of distraction. Raycroft has simply lost his confidence and his play suffered terribly. Despite his team tying 37 win season in '06-'07, the team sought out (and found) a number one goalie in Vesa Toskla. That sealed Raycroft's fait as a Leaf. Wellwood though is another matter. The team has a history of discarding small, flashy pivots (think Steve Sullivan) who go on to play well in the NHL. Wellwood is a little quirky though. He walks to his own beat (and you gotta respect a guy for that), but, he neglects his conditioning and his commitment to the team is questionable. His loss could come back to bite us.

With Mats Sundin off to enjoy poutine, you have what could be called a radically different looking team for the '08-'09 season. Will Kubina (who finished the season strong, and who's no-trade clause has been temporarily voided because of the team not making the play-offs... again... for the 3rd straight season) return? If he continues his strong play (and lets not forget he had been challenged really for the first time in his career with injury, pretty much since his arrival in Toronto), sure... why not.

The McCabe to the Islanders story just won't die.

Kaberle has to stay, period.

Hockey stories in the summer?

This is Canada...
Read More...

The local papers

Greg Weston (National Affairs columnist for sunmedia) writes an interesting article the other day. It is most definitely not his usual style. In it, he refers to Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and his new Carbon Tax/Non-Tax.

Once upon a time, Stephane Dion seemed at the end of his rope as he bemoaned the pitiful state of Gritdom to his trusty political adviser, the Wizard of Odd.

First let me say this, I enjoy the experience of 'reading the paper'. A cup of tea, a cigarette (boo hiss). I know the day is coming when the local daily s will fall, and I'm just not looking forward to it.

At any rate, I'm yes, having a cigarette and reading Weston's column from last Sunday in our local Toronto Sun, and that first line clearly told me this won't be a typical Weston column.

He goes on...

The wizard waved his wand and -- Poof! -- a 44-page document entitled The Green Shift suddenly landed in Dion's lap

and

Dion said professorially, "but how does it help the Liberal party get back in the game?"


"Simple," said Odd. "First, you collect about $15 billion by slapping a carbon tax on Big Oil, the electric utilities, and any other industry that produces greenhouse gas emissions. Then you use the loot to buy votes in the next election.

This is just classic. And something totally unexpected from Weston. I won't spoil the read, you just have to read it for yourself.
Read More...

Net Neutrality... Part 1

Net Neutrality, Fair Use and the 'free' Internet are common themes that I will speak to. Currently there is an interview here with Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo.

In it Mr. Caputo refers to the concerns of users as "laughable".

It ain't funny.

As you may or may not know, Sandvine is one of the company's (Arbor Ellacoya being another) that provide Rogers (along with Bell Canada) with deep packet inspection technology . This allows the 2 major Canadian ISP's to 'throttle' customer's internet connections/speeds. Recently, Bell began to 'manage' their network in such a way that now, 3rd party ISP resellers of Bell services are also being throttled. This practice has given rise to CRTC challenges.

Just this past week, the head of the CRTC (Konrad von Fickenstein) gave notice that the Net Neutrality issue, may become part of a "major consultation", calling it "inevitable".

There's all sorts of other issues underneath [net neutrality], such as ... blocking of services or Web sites, preferential treatment for certain content providers, the issue of modification of content and in terms of carriage-related issues, the limitations of what devices can be connected to the network...

Sadly, what was once a country seen as being a leader in terms of both access/availability, and speed is no more. Our wireless packages are seriously under-competitive (against ROTW) , with Rogers now injecting code into web pages as a means of notifying it's customers that they were approaching their allowable bandwidth for that given billing cycle, Bell resellers (like Teksavvy), and their customers, getting hit by Bell's 'traffic management strategy', and Rogers themselves having throttled their own customers for over 2 years now, what has become known as Net Neutrality finally looks to be the 'net issue in the near future.

When I say finally I say this because it has now become a mainstream media issue. 'Google' net neutrality, and do it from this page (which should become your new search page). Net Neutrality is not a new topic. This has been discussed widely on-line for close to 3 years now.

And I'll come to it again, sooner rather than later I'm sure.

Until then, do yourself a favour and visit Michael Geist's blog/site. He is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Cambridge University in the UK and Columbia Law School in New York, and a Doctorate in Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law School.

He's also an author/speaker of some renown.

And he's got a perma-link on my page under links...

The Candia'net...

I wonder what a routine by George Carlin on the subject of free internet would've sounded like. I'm sure it would've included all seven (if not more) words from his infamous bit entitled "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television".

WARNING! Vulgar humour alert!



RIP buddy...

thanks to ars technica for the heads up on the Sandvine interview! Read More...

R.I.P. George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008 )

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television," died in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

Source - International Herald Tribune Read More...

The Leafs... Part 1

The Toronto Maple Leafs (and everything that goes with being a Leafs fan), will be a continual source of 'material' for me. And right now I have to say that I am flipped out over Mats Sundin's negotiating rights having been sold/loaned/transferred to the hated Habs.

(the Sundin hyperlink leads to his Leaf page. I wonder how long the link will work)

Any Leaf fan will tell you that the Habs are the one team you absolutely cannot play for after being 'honoured' by Leafdom. Doing so would instantly ban you to the pits of hell with no chance of parole.

We have a history of both honouring and dishonouring those who have worn the 'C'. Dave Keon (above right - CP file photo), Sittler, Clark, Gilmour. All have been welcomed upon their return (particularly Keon, at last years 40th anniversary 'celebration' of the *cough* last Leafs team to win a cup).

sigh

But this...

Sundin to Les Habs? Returning to the ACC wearing les bleu, blanc et rouge? Sorry, this I have a serious problem with. Having been to his home I can say that yes, he is a 'nice man'. Many say this about the man. We are accepting (albeit not quietly) about his spending summers back home instead of staying with 'us' (perhaps at one of the Muskoka Five's cottages - snicker), providing Leaf Nation with a year round fix of Leaf hysteria.

And questions about his 'passion' for the game (more importantly I guess, to the Team) continue to dog Sundin even as his career as a Leaf has come to an end. And come to an end it has, for there is no scenario that I can see that involves Sundin ever again putting on a Leaf jersey.

I can also see Leafdom getting all worked up in a froth over Sundin's return as a Hab. The hanger will be rocking for weeks over the mere possibility of 'giving it' to Mats should he deign to grace us with his presence. Yes the venom will be out in full bore and all of it (whether warranted or not) will be directed at our formerly beloved Captain. Salming can go to the Wings, and Sittler to the Flyers, but playing for the Habs is simply unforgiveable in the eyes of Leafs fans.

And yet again, another controversial end to a Leaf career. Read More...

Layouts

Being new to blogging and its communities, I have to say that putting the link to my blog 'out there', for the first time, gave me pause. I was anxious! I had been playing around with a default template, spending hours changing the layout. 2 or 3 columns? Wide or narrow?

This doesn't even begin to address the number of different thoughts and such that will contribute to different posts. For years to come! I'm sitting here how I want it to look! Isn't that a wee bit backwards?

I"m not so sure of that. Today, perception plays a large(r) role. And at times the message really does get lost. Well, perhaps misplaced then. Something I'd been wanting to finalize was the What's been said..., section. I was comfortable with this area's positioning within the basic layout. I looked into a few different sites that provide content along the lines of just what I wanted this section to be about.

I've decided upon using my own (without necessarily being of my own) sayings/quotations (I have to say though that Robert at just-quotes.com is very helpful. If you need some content along those lines, visit his site). I think I want to keep this area mine.

I think I got the banner right though.

The layout may change somewhat over time, and maybe more often than not for the next while. But I'm looking at blogging with a sense of excitement and anticipation.

See you again soon. Read More...

The second move

The second move in chess can be seen to have a greater effect on the game than the first.

And so this being the second post, I find myself (as I have for the past few days) contemplating just what it is I want to get out of this blog.

Perhaps that in itself is enough for a second post. Read More...

e4

And so it begins... Read More...