The iPhone in Canada



Since Rogers announced their rate plans for the iPhone, there has been almost universal condemnation.

From bloggers such as Fred Brunnel to mainstream media such as the CBC has announced and condemned the price plans.

The complaints: forcing all subscribers into three year plans, most nations offer less and the greatest sin, no unlimited data plan.

This chart lists the various plans and the cost:



So tonight I went to a local Rogers store and discussed such things as the new Blackberry Bold and the iPhone rates. It seems Customer Services representatives have been getting hammered by people calling and complaining. All these complaints have reached the ears of the Board of Directors at Rogers, they are now telling people in the company that those plans may not be the only plans "offered" by Rogers. The question is when will these other new plans be announced? Good question, the right thing would be before the new phone is released. Or would it be better to think it will occur after the initial release, especially if the anger towards the price plan is demonstrated in less then stellar sales of the iPhone on July 11th. I'm thinking the latter. After all, if sales are at levels expected then why release a second plan, but if sales are below those expectations then watch the new rate planes come out.

Also, the date of the Bold will be around July 25th. Perhaps the strategy is to wait until then and watch what Rogers' does.

A Linux Based Blog

It's been a time since I've said anything about Linux or Ubuntu.

I'm still using Ubuntu, having downloaded the latest version a couple of months ago. It's working very well, although my Dell laptop is showing its age. After all, it's almost 4 years old. Just three more payments and I can start looking for a new one. At least that's the plan.

Recently, Linux Magazine had as its cover article: Spawn of Ubuntu. Not only is Ubuntu growing and expanding with each passing new version, and its various manifestation such as kubuntu or edubuntu.

What has been happening is Ubuntu is now the basis of other distros. Three are highlighted in the article. The three are: freespire, gOS and Linux Mint. Each has its merits, in fact the article gives a good review of all three.
Personally I've been trying Linux Mint on the laptop. I must say that it is a very nice flavour of Linux. One thing that is noticed, and this is coming from a Ubuntu person is the colour green. Since it is a Mint the colour green predominates. While a person could ask is the colour important, it does add and enhance to distro.

I've tried 4.0 Daryna. It has a number of things going for it and it is worth the time to download and burn onto a disc.

If there is something I would want in Mint it would be support for the 64bit AMD based computers. I like the idea it has stayed with Intel based computers, but I think it would grow to add this to its repertoire.

I'm going to say more about Mint, but it's time to call it a day.

iPhone comes to Canada

Finally, Canada will join the 21st century when it comes to wireless technology. After a year of only looking on and salivating as nations such as the USA, UK, Germany and a few others received the right to possess the marvel that is the cellphone, Canada will join 21 other nations on July 11th.

By now every Canadian blogger has written about this wonderful news. No doubt Apple Fanboy has been especially articulate, or perhaps not with their comments expression love towards the godlike figure that is Steve Jobs.

There is a pent up demand and Apple knows it, their homepage features this:


Okay, so what about the iPhone. Consider, 3G system which means fast Internet browsing. GPS including maps so you will never get lost. Third party apps. There is a camera and because of the GPS a person can geotap the photographs. Plus it's thin, has a very good battery life, it's Apple and be honest it is amazing to look at, no matter what you think. Couple all this with a price tag of $199.00 it will be the killer devise of the year.

It will be sold by Rogers and Fido. It will be interesting to go to the nearest Rogers or Fido on the 11th. I don't know if we will see the line ups like they had in the States on the launch date of the first iPhone.

The Globe and Mail had an article comparing the Blackberry and the iPhone, since people who may have thought Blackberry before may think iPhone, although I understand that the iPhone isn't great for business. Still, never underestimate mass sex appeal. At the same time the Blackberry has been reaching out to the consumer market.

Now the question is, how much to operate the iPhone? Rogers has a moneymaker and will they decide to ease up and give the $7.00 a month data plan as was rumoured a few months ago or screw the consumer. If history is the gauge, it will be the latter. So what will it be?

Also, how will the other carriers react? I went into a Bell World store because they had Blackberry's for $0.00. Oh yes the phone was nothing, but when the salesperson started quoting what plans I would need, zero quickly became $80.00 a month, not including all the other things, like system access ($6.95), 911 ($0.95) and all the other magical fees.

Although I now wonder, walk into the same store and tell them, Blackberry -free, plans, twenty dollars a month, inclusive including GPS navigation or I wait for the iPhone. What would they say? Yes? or call security.

The fun now starts.

Wired's Inconvenient Truths

I still read and subscribe to Wired Magazine. Even though it was a shock when they changed the size and made it more like any other magazine, still it is something I look forward to each month.

This month's lead article and it was in the 15th Anniversary issue, congratulations Wired, dealt with the environment. The authors write in the opening couple of paragraphs:

The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals. Preserving wild spaces, cleaning up the oceans, protecting watersheds, neutralizing acid rain, saving endangered species — all laudable. But today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming. Restoring the Everglades, protecting the Headwaters redwoods, or saving the Illinois mud turtle won't matter if climate change plunges the planet into chaos. It's high time for greens to unite around the urgent need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism's sacred cows. We can afford to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear energy nor the transformational potential of genetic engineering. We need to take advantage of the energy efficiencies offered by urban density. We must accept that the world's fastest-growing economies won't forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science — and that, on the way up, countries like India and China might actually help devise the solutions the planet so desperately needs.

The point is, there are a couple of sacred cows out there which have turned out to be very bad for the environment. To the authors the key is to lower the amount of carbon dioxide and other green house gases that are being pumped into the atmosphere. I should give the caveat, to make their points they do gloss over a number of problems inherit with their positions, but then again, no one accused the writers of being fair and balanced.

So what are some I agree, the first, in my order not the magazines is Nuclear Power.If you have been around environmentalists just suggest nuclear power to them and watch what happens. Now certainly alternative energy generating sources are good, but have drawback, wind power means huge windmills which are wonderful, unless you are a bird that flies into one of those big things, plus I understand the noise can be something. Solar power? Okay but still relatively expensive.

That does leave nuclear. It is clean. It produces very cheap electricity, perhaps not as cheap as hydro, but it is second. It emits no greenhouse gases. Again, if the key is to lower greenhouse gases, this is the key. As with all technology, things are improving and it is getting cheaper. OF course there are the downsides, such as what do you do with the spent uranium, how do you dispose or handle them safely. I suppose what one can do is simply sell them to any one of a number of rogue states to help them with their nuclear weapon programs. With some spent fuel rods and a couple of minutes on the Internet, you too can join the Axis of Evil. As an aside, I want to welcome all those readers from CSIS who are now reading this blog. Hi Andrew I know disposal is still a major problem but unless we deal with global warning, it is a moot point. Nuclear energy is today, it is economical, in the long run and it is clean.

The second point I want to discuss and this one gets me going every time, is Carbon Credits. The idea of carbon credits is:

What a cool idea: Instead of reducing our own carbon emissions, we'll pay other people to reduce theirs. Win-win!

It's saying to the third world, you continue to mire in substandard subsistence living, which while causes a shortened life span, doesn't produce greenhouse gases, and we will continue to live as we always have. So it intents to shut the third world off from development that could better their lives. The last thing we want is for them to be as wasteful as us, speaking as the first world. So they keep a tree, we keep living high on the hog. It is interesting that one of the best suggestions is the now being attacked by Conservatives, the carbon tax. Do I favour such a thing? Do I like paying even more for gas? No, but consider what is happening, this increase in gasoline is not driven by shortages caused by natural or human made disasters, it's caused by greed. The last paragraph of the Wired article states:

A carbon tax would eliminate three classes of parasites that have evolved to fill niches created by the global climate protocol: cynical marketers intent on greenwashing, blinkered bureaucrats shoveling indulgences to powerful incumbents, and deal-happy Wall Streeters looking for a shiny new billion-dollar trading toy. Back to the drawing board, please.

The third issue brought forward is urban living. Cities compact a lot of people into a relatively small area. With more people in a smaller area, things begin to become cheaper, such things as public transportation. Plus walking is now possible because everything is relatively close by. The problem of cities is not the core, its the suburbs. People spread out, when things spread out it loses the mass of affordability. Public transit has difficulty paying for itself because of distance. Suburbia becomes based upon the automobile only. Also, suburbs have meant the decrease in farmlands, as more of it become cookie cutter housing. Another problem was pointed out this way by the article:

Even worse are the 40 million lawn mowers used to tame the suburban backcountry: Each spews 11 cars' worth of pollutants per hour.

.
I was fortunate, the lawnmower I have decided to "blow up", at least parts started to shoot out. I bought an electric mower. No pollution and a lot quieter.

There are problems with cities, two in particular- one is the fact they become heat islands, all that asphalt tends to heat up the area. Another problem is the lack of green, with all the above, there are very few trees. For example, Brantford has nly 15% tree shade throughout the city, which is very bad. To counteract the problems of heat, the urban forest needs to expand. But that is possible.

I do have a few disagreements, one is the issue of cars. One writer suggests not buying a hybrid but buy used. Personally I think we should get more electric cars, and this goes back to my comment about cities, with closer distances a person does not need the conventional gas powered car to get around. Smaller, electric cars are far better.

So that's just a few points I want to raise about the article. It is articles like that which remind me why I continue to read Wired.

Peace

Taking Some Photographs

A lot has been happening to change the face of downtown Brantford. Since moving here the past July I've learned that there has been a number of attempts to revitalize the downtown core of Brantford Ontario. One of the most recent efforts has been the establishment of Harmony Square. It is a public square that the city is attempting to use as a meeting place for the community.

It has become the centre for a group which calls itself the Brantford Arts Block. It is a

Brantford Arts Block is a community arts organization that was founded in 2006 to advocate and create arts-based neighbourhood revitalization, both in Brantford's downtown and area-wid

It has put on a number of events that bring people to the downtown to use their artistic ability. I suppose it could be called a grassroots movement to enhance culture and the arts.

Today they had a PhotoCrawl. The call was for photographers, either amateur or professional to bring their cameras downtown and take some pictures. The photographs could be of anything that struck the interest of the person with the camera. Now when I read that I thought "I have a camera, I like to take pictures..".

The day didn't start that well, but by afternoon it cleared up and became a great day. So with the sun and just a few clouds I jumped on the bike and headed to Harmony Square. There I met about 7 others, some with equipment that was very impressive and one with a simple digital camera like myself. One fellow came up to me and immediately recognized my Ubuntu button. He was another Linux user, going back to Red Hat 4. So it was good to talk to another fanboy. Out of that I discussed open source with another one of the photographers, so it was fun.

We were told to walk around and take pictures. The subject matter was whatever subject caught your interest.





So I did.

What impressed me was some of the interesting buildings in the area. If they could revitalize the core, these structures could become very interesting places of business and living. There is a lot of potential there that is waiting to be used.

It was a lot of fun.

The next event on the calendar is Drum Circle featuring instruments created by local thingmake Dave Hind.

Should be interesting as well

No Electric Car for You

Canada has a lot going for it; clean air, except in our cities, clean water, except in places where we have oil, and our cities. We do have mountains, great towering things.

What we seem not to have, especially if Transport Canada has its way, is an Electric Car.

The Economist ran this article regarding a bureaucratic response to the possibility of building an electric car in Canada. To sum it up, they are dead set against it.

The Dynasty Electric Car Company and Zenn Motor Company both want to develop a low speed vehicle for the Canadian Market. The purpose of these cars is to provide people who drive in cities an opportunity to drive a car that produces zero emissions.

Canada has an abundance of electricity, and so you would think it's a perfect fit, especially in Central Canada where we don't hit oil every time we stick a shovel into the ground.

However the good people at Transport Canada seem to be concerned about the safety record of these vehicles.

To quote:

It doubts they would stand up in a collision with a delivery truck or a sport utility vehicle. Officials say they crash-tested one which didn't fare well, though they refuse to release the data.

Let's put this in perspective, the same vehicles, the SUV has a questionable safety record itself. However no one has ever suggested that SUV's be pulled off the road as a dangerous vehicle.

So, what is going on here?

May I suggest a letter to your local MP and ask that first of all, Transport Canada releases the safety finding of the LSV ( Low Speed Vehicle) and brings to the public debate as to why Canada should not allow these vehicles on our road. While you are at it, send a copy to Lawrence Cannon who is the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, mentioning how electric cars will benefit our communities, more then SUV's could ever.

So get those pens going.

The Clawback is ending

If you go to some of my links, you will notice there's one for Make Poverty History. The belief is this, we can end poverty in our life time.

One of concerns of Make Poverty History is the ending of child poverty. You can read the statistics, but let me share them.

* One in six Canadian children is poor.
* Canada's child poverty rate of 15 percent is three times as high as the rates of Sweden, Norway or Finland.
* Every month, 770,000 people in Canada use food banks. Forty percent of those relying on food banks are children. These statistics point to a betrayal of Canada's children. What makes the persistence of child poverty all the more disturbing is that Canada is a rich country, a country that ranked fourth in the world on the 2004 UN Human Development Index.

This is the reality. The Parliament of Canada once called for the ending of child poverty by the year 2000. We're now 8 years after the event was supposed to happen and it's still here.

Usually when talking about child poverty, the blog becomes a critical one, after all, child poverty exists because governments refuse to move, however I want to share some good news; the clawback of child tax credit is ending in Ontario. For years this has been a provincial disgrace, one that has been basically ignored but now it is coming to an end. I received a news release stating that the Province will no long clawback that amount. This is very good news.

I wrote a letter to my local MPP, Dave Levac commending the government for doing end the clawback.

I know it's not perfect and there is still much to do, but it's a start and I felt the need to commend the government for doing something good.

Another action of the Provincial government is the Ontario Child Benefit.

Like I said, its the first step, but an important one.

My Quibblo Personality Quiz Result for: Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You?

Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You? My Result: Neo

You are introspective, yet curious. You yearn for answers in a confusing world. With no limits, though, you can do anything. Also, you know kung fu. Whoa. Take Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You? Find more quizzes at Quibblo.com

My Quibblo Personality Quiz Result for: Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You?

Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You? My Result: Neo

You are introspective, yet curious. You yearn for answers in a confusing world. With no limits, though, you can do anything. Also, you know kung fu. Whoa. Take Which Keanu Reeves Character Are You? Find more quizzes at Quibblo.com

Does Apple Hate Canada?


Those who know me, know you cannot describe me as an AppleSlappy, or MacFanBoy. So my next few words may shock you.

The problem is not Apple.

This article in the Globe and Mail asks why know iPhone in Canada, is it because Apple doesn't think much of Canada?

How about, the major wireless provider who can handle the iPhone doesn't want to play by Apple's rules.

Rogers is the only one that can provide and they don't want to offer the same deal as ATT has given iPhone users.

One comment in the article:

Most experts, however, believe that the high rates Canadian telecom providers charge for mobile Internet data transfer plans are the biggest factor keeping the iPhone out of Canada.

They could push it, but I think they are dealing with a company that is not used to cooperating. The telecos are the ones that make the rules in Canada, and an upstart like Apple can't come in and tell THEM what to do.

Another commentator mentioned this fact:

the iPhone is at its best where there are liberal data usage policies through the local service provider. It is a documented fact that Canada has one of the worst rates for cellular data usage in the developed world. The elephant in the room there is that Rogers Telecomm has a lock of GSM networks in Canada and is probably refusing to alter its cash-cow data plans to suit the integrity of Apple's product. Corporations in the US and Europe have changed their data plans in order to carry Apple's products. The lack of competition in the GSM space allows Rogers to get away with this here.

Rogers only understands one thing and that is to make bushels of money from the consumer.

Competition in the cellular market cannot come soon enough in Canada.

Earth Hour 2008

I was a bit late getting home, but the moment we arrived it was time to celebrate Earth Hour. So once in, and the cats got their tuna it was time to go around and make sure all the lights were off and the power bars were switched off, that way all non-essential items, such as computers and peripherals were off.

I can report that most homes in the neighbourhood also followed suit since many were in darkness, with only the soft glow of candlelights shining through windows.

All this proves is energy conservation is a grassroots movement and can be accomplished. Perhaps this is not the end of global warming, but it is a start and everything great has to start at some time and some place.



The good news, it appears a lot of people decided to get involved, according to the The Toronto Star, energy consumption for the hour dropped in the Province of Ontario. The total for the province was a decrease of 5.2%. Perhaps this is not overly incredible, especially when we put ourselves beside the cities of Australia and New Zealand where consumption dropped by over 10%. Still considering this is the first year, its a good start.

With candles, flashlights, the LED type, the darkness wasn't all that bad.

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Karl Rove loves his iPhone «

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Karl Rove loves his iPhone «

I'm debating if this is the sort of news that Apple should be proclaiming loud and proud.

Karl Rove loves his Apple products.

He has the iPhone and the MacBook Air.

Just in case you don't remember who Karl Rove is, read his wikipedia entry.

It might be easy to call him the Prince of Darkness, or the Personification of Evil, but that might be too lenient. Just go down the wiki and read all about his involvement in ruining people's lives or his heavy handedness, or the fact he took great relish destroying lives and reputations.

Now he like Apple products.

Perhaps Apple should change one of their mottos from "Think Different" to
"Think Evil".

The Canadian Press: Mounties zap details from Taser reports as firings soar across Canada

The Canadian Press: Mounties zap details from Taser reports as firings soar across Canada

Operor non Tase mihi Frater

Forget A Mari usque ad Mare. Canada needs a new up-to-date Latin saying. One that reflects the cultural ideals of our society.

After reading the above article may I suggest the one in the heading.

It means "Don't Tase me Bro'".

Appropriate don' you think?

The Storm of '08

The news this morning is all about the Storm.

It was quite a solid all day affair yesterday.

Here are photographs of the aftermath, as people start to clear their property.

Now this is an Amazing Linux Ad

Watch this Ad:
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It is any reason Linux is an amazing operating system.

With this being the end of February, or close to it, we now under two months to the launch of the new version of Ubuntu, Handy Heron.

The Alpha 5 release has been available and in a number of weeks, hopefully the Beta version will be out and then starts the exciting countdown to the new version.

This site gives the dates.

Looking forward to the 24th of April, or I may wait a few days.

End of the Skiing Season?

So I went out today for my weekly Cross country skiing time. The point of launch was going to be around the Mohawk Chapel park. The thought was to go along the Gordon Glaves Memorial Trail to the river. I've done the trail by bike and so it was going to be a re-visit. I had hoped to do it last week, but ended up going to Mohawk Park and then starting the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail. Believe it or not, I actually saw skiers along that trail!

Okay this week, there had been some new snow but generally sunny skies, which meant that combined with the cold temperature there was thaw and then freezing. What that meant was parts of the trail were snow bare and the rest was icy.

I didn't ski as far as I wanted because of those conditions.

Which probably means the ending of the season.

It was a good skiing season really. Very enjoyable. Hopefully there be as much snow next year.

Go Ask Alice, when you see her on The Bridge

Came across this video on YouTube

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Now I'm not saying the song is suggesting that was any consumption of controlled substances on The Enterprise, but it does make you think.


By the way, what did the Dormouse say?

Tom Cruise on Scientology

It's making the rounds, see it before its gone.

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Creep doesn't begin to describe it.

By the way KSW= "keep scientology working"

Wikipedia has information on the cult

Of course it has inspired parody:
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And Scientology wants the parodies removed.

Hey good luck on that one.

I'm seeing if I can blog with my Dell Axim x3i. If you can see this, then it is successful.

Hockey News for Friday

It appears the Toronto Maples Leafs may be changing their logo in the near future.

They might go from :



to:



The news on The Score is that Russian Billionaire Alexander Shnaider has approached Larry Tanenbaum about purchasing MSLE, which owns the Leafs, the Raptors, Air Canada Centre, BMO Field and Toronto FC. Of course he is only one part of the MSLE puzzle, the Teacher's Pension, CTVGlobemedia are also part of the ownership mess.

It might be interesting, after all leadership of the Leafs have meant, nothing. No playoffs, no Stanley Cup, no nothing except baskets of money every year, because it they ain't spending anything on making a winner.

This might be interesting.

Of course, there are a few things to consider:

the main owners, the Teacher's Pension and CTV may not be interested in selling.
however, Tanenbaum might be, which means this Shnaider might get his foot in the door and if that happens watch him gain majority and then sole control.

There is one interesting fact, the long time owner Harold Ballard hated the Russians.

Can you hear him spinning?

First Blog of 2008

As the title says, the first blog of 2008. No pressure but I've got to come up with something good, that will set the tone for all blogs of the future.

So here is what I'm thinking on the second day of 2008; is anyone at all interested in the US election? Be honest haven't these people been running since the last election in November 2004? Tomorrow starts the first of the primaries and although Iowa is officially a 'caucus', it's still the start of something the MSM will call interesting as if to justify the money that has been spent and all those reporters running around the back roads of Iowa in search of a story.

The end result will be someone will get the caucus which means:

The Iowa caucus is an electoral event in which Iowa residents elect delegates to the county convention to which their precinct belongs. (There are 99 counties in Iowa (as of 2008), therefore, 99 conventions.) These county conventions then select delegates for both Iowa's Congressional District Convention and the State Convention—these eventually choosing the delegates for the National Convention. The Iowa caucus is noteworthy for the amount of media attention it receives during U.S. presidential election years: Since 1972, the Iowa caucus has been the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States. It has served as an early indication of which candidates for President might win the nomination of their political party at that party's national convention. The next Iowa caucus is on January 3, 2008.

So in other words, what happens tomorrow is Iowans will elect the delegates who will elect the delegates to attend the various National Conventions that will take place in the summer of 2008. All I can say is 'thank you' to Wikipedia for explaining that to me. If I can further sum it all up it means, precisely nothing but has meant a lot of service industries in Iowa has done well with all the reporters, candidates, candidate workers going throughout the 99 counties of Iowa.

Hey, more power to Iowa.

In other news: Lake Superior State University located in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan has come up with its lists of banned words. Now this is not a suppression of First Amendment Rights rather a desire to remove words and phrases that have overstayed their welcome. They are overused, hackneyed, trite and generally annoying, the by-product of people parroting the 'cool' phrases of the day.

The full list is here. The banned word/phrase of the year is Perfect Storm. It started out as a book and later a movie. The premise was the convergence of a number of conditions that would bring about a perfect combination of absolutely horrible weather. Now it's used to describe any and everything that could be possibly bad.

But all is not doom and gloom, there is good news. First and foremost, you can now order your very own CrankyGeeks T-Shirt. That is true, after months of teasing and promises, Jinx has designed and put out for purchase a t shirt dedicated to one of the better vidcasts out there, CrankyGeeks with John C. Dvorak. Buy yours now.

The only other bit of news is the Dell Axim X3i is working well, it's recharging in its very cool cradle for both charging the battery and syncing it with the computer.

Dude I got a New Dell

After owning one for about 6 years I decided to recycle my old Axim X5 for something a littler newer. So I decided to search the pages of Ebay to discern what was out there. I looked around and discovered there was a very nice Dell Axim X3i. You can read a review of it here. It has

# Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PC, including Pocket versions of Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player and more
# Intel® XscaleTM Processor at 400MHz or 300MHz
# Brilliant 3.5-inch TFT 240x320 QVGA 65K Color Transflective LCD
# 64MB SDRAM or 32MB SDRAM
# 64MB or 32MB Intel® StrataFlashTM ROM
# 1 Secure Digital IO Slot
# Consumer IrDA port
# 950mAh Li-Ion Removable Battery with integrated rechargeable Backup Battery
# Optional 1800mAh Li-Ion High Capacity Battery
# Built-in Microphone & Speaker
# Backlit Power Button / Indicator Light
# Optional integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b capability
# Weight: Axim X3i w/ standard battery: 140.4g (5 oz); Axim X3 w/standard battery: 136.5g (4.8 oz)
# Dimensions: Axim X3i: 122.4 x 14.9 x 77.2mm (4.82" x 0.6" x 3"); Axim X3: 117 x 14.9 x 77.2mm (4.6" x 0.6" x 3")
# Power Button, 4 Application Keys, 5-way Navigator Button, Scroll Dial, Wireless On/Off Button, Record Button, Headphone mini-jack
# USB Cradle with 2nd primary battery charging slot

What is impressive is the smaller and lighter size, in comparison to it's older brother the X5. As well, it has integrated WIFI which can be turned off and turned on so as to save battery life. As you may know, WiFi can be a battery drainer so it's a good feature to have.

The original news release is here.

As you can see, there's also a nice looking cradle for both syncing and recharging the battery.

The WiFi antenna is quite good and gives a good range for the needs of surfing the Net. What also makes it different from the X5 is there is only a SD card slot rather then an SD and CF card slot. With my X5, the CF slot was filled with a CF WiFi card, so it's no big one.

As for the Axim X5, Jeremy got it. He got the Axim, the WiFi card and a blank SD card. I hope he enjoys it.

More Photographs of a Winter Landscape






Took an hour to go out, do some skiing and take some photographs

Here's what is happening in Brantford.

The weather news was for a storm and as you can see by these two photographs, the forecast was correct.





Needless to say, it has meant the cancellation of church this morning and the postponing of the Christmas Cantata this afternoon.

What this also means is;

relax in the morning and

Cross Country Skiing in the Afternoon.

I'll bring my camera.

LOLCAT Thursday

I am certain I had some serious topic for this blog. Something profound and moving. Then I went to the LOLcat site and saw this:


moar funny pictures


Cats dressed in bunny suits with that "if looks could kill" look. Truly this is why the Internet was created.

No serious, this is why the Internet was created.

A few thoughts for Wednesday



In the mail today was a new package from Canonical, it was the new CD's for Gutsy Gibbon. I went to gthe Shipti page and ordered some discs of the new OS. Now you know from previous blogs that I download the new distro around the time its available, so what would be the advantage of getting the CD's? There is a very good reason and that is it is a excellent backup.

By this I mean should I have an problems with Gutsy I can simply do an install using the discs. I had to do that very thing with Feisty a couple months after it came out. For some reason the computer started to act very badly- slowing down and generally not responding. I was having problems with both wireless and wired broadband, but I had ordered some discs. So it was simply a matter of installing straight off the CD and everything worked well. Of course by that I mean as good as Feisty was, personally there were a number of problems which have been addressed by Gutsy.

Plus there is the matter of the stickers that come with it, perhaps a few could end up on my bike, my older one that is.

I also finished watching Crankygeeks and this episode was quite interesting. First of all, I don't think at any time did John C. Dvorak give the plug for his blog. Now that has to be an absolute first since he plugs that address everywhere, just listen to a few episodes of TWIT to see what I mean. Also it featured an all geek girl cast, including everyone's favourite roving reporter from geekentertainment.tv, Irina Slutsky. It was a lively show with the ladies going off on what was John's topics, but they added a new dimension to the show and it was very good. It is well worth a watch.

On the topic of crankygeeks; they are coming out with a t-shirt. I can't wait to get the news and information as to ordering said t-shirt. It will be a proud part of my collection.

Speaking of t-shirts:



If any one knows where to order this, please let me know.

I just went back and discovered that I have been using Ubuntu for nearly a year. I'll have to write a blog about my experience.

Living with Gutsy Gibbon

I've been living with Gutsy Gibbon, the latest Ubuntu release since the release of the beta in late September. It has been an interesting experience going through the experience of a beta release, the first thing I noticed was the last of introduction music. I wondered if Ubuntu was going to go silent, but when I downloaded the full version, the sounds have returned, so as the brown background.

On the 18th, I fired up and downloaded what was left of the upgrade. The problem with downloading on the day of release is all the servers get very busy and the download is a crawl. Fortunately with all the upgrades before, there was only a few files that were required to bring my OS to full release glory.

Now, what was my opinion. It is a delightful upgrade. A number of the problems with 7.04 are fixed.

Let me give the list of what I like:

I can use my Canon Printer. I have set up the Canon as the network printer and 7.10 found it and found the right printer. Now I can sit anywhere in the house and print any document I want printed. As well, when I plug in my HP Printer, it is found as well. I can make either one the default printer for this laptop.

An interesting feature is that at the first usage, it checked the battery and stated it was an older battery with limited time. The battery is almost 4 years old and is the NI type.

The problem I had with the microphone headset have been fixed. With Feisty, the mike did not work well at all. The problem was when I used Skype. I would try and it wouldn't work. In fact Feisty became very buggy in late June for some reason.

The search deskbar applet is a good feature. It allows you to more search engines then Google and allows you to search files for the same name. Couple this with the Tracher Search Tool nothing will get lost, ever.

True plug and play. I plugged in my camera and it was found. As well to unmount is straightforward and again, it is identified correctly.


My one drawback, and this is more the age of my laptop, I can't used any of the enhanced destop features or visual effects. I have seen them on the older desktop, but with the laptop, its not possible. Although this is more due to the fact the video is not supported or cannot support Linux. Still as I said, it's an older machine and it's one of the drawbacks I have learned to accept.

Wireless again is a breeze, simply plug in the wifi card and it connects.

The other features that are mentioned such as the quick change from one user to another is not a feature I will use since I'm the only one with this laptop.

F-Spot, the photo is not only a simple photo editing tool and it allows fast upload to flickr and a number of other photo hosting sites. It's a very nice feature of Ubuntu.

Pigdin, the multiple platform messenger tool. It is GAIM with a new name.

It has the latest Firefox and the Open Office Suite.


With all this, it's going to be a good six months and then 8.04 will be released and if it has more enhancements, it will be great. Of course the added feature of the next upgrade will be the long term support.

I'm going to upgrade until the machine can't take it any more.

New Apple Trojan Means Mac Hunting Season Is Open

New Apple Trojan Means Mac Hunting Season Is Open

It was only a matter of time. So there is now a trojan that is Mac unique. To sum up, it goes this way, a person with a Mac want to watch a video, a box pops up and informs the person they have to download a special codec to watch. When they do that, a trojan is installed on their computer and their secure machine is now compromised.

As you read the article you will note that experts in the field argue whether or not this is an exploitation of a hole or exploits human weakness. May I suggest it doesn't matter, because trojans, malware are where its at when it comes to security. For the most part the classic virus is a thing of the past. The good days when you open up a email, or stick in a infected floppy and infect your computer is probably a thing of the past. I will not say there are no virii, because as long as a person can download the Virus Laboratory and make your own, it will always be the case.

However it is the trojan that has the potential of turning a computer into a zombie machine that becomes a means of pumping out spam and other nastiness is where it is.


One comment:

Unlike many Windows-based attacks, the Trojan doesn't exploit a hole in Apple's software, and it can't install itself. Instead, it relies on social engineering, tricking users into downloading the codec, and requiring that they type in the administrator password to install it.

.

This is true but consider this, it's got to start sometime. Once the hackers realize there is a vulnerability they will become more aggressive.

Now there is someone who disagrees with all this:

But Carl Howe, an Apple analyst at Blackfriars Communications, disputes the security researchers' theories. He thinks that OS X's Unix heritage makes Apple systems less vulnerable to attack than Windows-based platforms. He argues that even if hacking Macs hasn't been profitable in the past, attackers would have done it anyway if they'd been able -- just for the attention.

"I think the market-share thing has always been a myth," Howe said. "It's a good story to talk about."

It's a good thought but may I make a suggestion to this, I believe Apple has been able to enjoy it's hacker past for many years. After all Jobs and Woz were hackers, they were phone phreaks and all that good stuff, so it may have been an aura that surrounded Apple. "They were one of us", the hackers may have thought. While it's doubtful many hackers have a romantic view of the past, it may have been simple market share plus the cost of hardware. After all, to hack Windows, you needed a Windows computer and they price for a very good Windows machine is probably 1/2 that of Apple. But Apple Computers are coming down in price and their market share is growing. So if more hackers get their hands on Apple machines, they will begin to look around and try and find exploits. Once they start, they won't stop.

There's another reason, Apple is arrogant and complacent. While people are lauding Leopard, others are noticing there are problems. Is it the case Apple has a lot of irons in the fire. If you consider there has been the iPhone, newer and better iPods, all of which is taking time from developing secure software. As well, Apple has turned against the good hacker community, with their recent firmware upgrade which turned many iPhones into very expensive paper weights, some one is going to get angry and then figure out how to get back.

Remember, when Safari was installed on Windows, hackers had a field day. They know they can exploit the software, it will only be a matter of time.

Apple fan, get used to having Norton installed on your machine.

Apple now bigger than Big Brother : Good Morning Silicon Valley





Remember the Ad? Apple was the champion of freedom and choice in a world dominated by Big Blue, aka
IBM. The Corporate Entity known as IBM was stifling freedoms and forcing the world into the beige box of conformity.

Now we have this article from "God morning Silicon Valley", Apple is now bigger the IBM and this is the result



Apple, or perhaps we should consider calling them "Big White" has replace Big Brother with their brand of oppression. Now some may think, this is just another Anti-Apple Screed, think about this:

Apple has perfected the closed system. You to change your iMac, your iBook in anyway, you can, it's called 'buying a new one'. Yes everything is in one, try and put in a bigger hard drive. You want to mod, no way.

You want to hack your iPhone like you did the AppleTV, sure you can, and then Apple will screw you royally with a firmware update that won't simply remove all the hacks and third party apps, but stop it from working. Nice.

Oh and remember when you could install Linux on your iPod? Not any more.

Have a rumour? How about an inside tip? Want to post it on your blog? Expect a "Cease and Desist" letter from Steve Jobs.

What about IBM? They have embraced open source and Linux. As well, they have released Lotus Symphony, an open source Office Suite based upon Open Office. As well, this will be tied into their Lotus Notes platform with release 8.0. Again, another example of how the world is beginning to embrace Open Source while Big White remains closed behind walls of its own system.

1984 won't be like 1984?

The Ontario General Election
Meh

Says it all.

The result was as to be expected, the Liberals won, the Conservatives lost and the NDP hung in there.

I heard the final speeches on election night and they were interesting. The first leader to speak was Dalton McGuinty, the once and present Premier. I thought this was odd since usually the winner waits until everyone has conceded the election before speaking. His speech was as exciting as he, in other words dull. In fact all he did was repeat what he has said over the past 28 days, with the exception of talking about his family.

John Tory was next and he gave words of congratulations to Dalton, to Kathleen Wynne and then said the usual stuff defeated politicians say. If I can translate: "we lost, it was my fault, let's get drunk". Okay so maybe not.

Howard Hampton spoke last and just kind of rambled on, talking about people he knew.

The dullest election, the Seinfeld election is now history. Meh.


Although let me rant, the sad part of the entire election was the inability of the electorate to support the referendum. People stayed with the status quo and I think part of the reason was a lack of information. I mean, what did we know about the difference? Practically little. I don't understand why this was not covered more and why information was not given prior to the election. This was not a campaign this was a practical constitutional change, one that required more thoughtful discussion and information.

As for the Green Party; so close, so very close. Next time, for sure.

Don't let the events of Burma disappear from the collective radar of North America. What's more important, the democratic struggle of an oppressed people, or the custody problems of Britney Spears?

Some of the News today:

Junta steps up Propaganda

More Arrests

Amnesty International

Voted

Before complete and total election ennui set in, I decided to go and register at the nearest Elections Ontario office. Since we had just moved to Brantford, we needed to get our names on the list of electors. While registering it was also advanced poll day, so kill two birds with one stone sort of thing.

While this must be going down in history as the dullest election ever, I mean my mail box is not even filled with pamphlets, it is still important to vote. If for no other reason, vote in the Referendum. It's a decision that could alter the way we vote by allowing us to not only vote for one person, but for a particular party. It's a concept that is due in Canada.

So for no other reason, get out the vote.

Participate and Blog





for a Free Burma.

For more information go to the Free Burma Blogsite

One Blog Post for Burma. October 4th.

Cleveland 95 65 0.594 - - 07-Mar W1
Detroit 87 73 0.544 8 E 04-Jun L1
Minnesota 78 82 0.488 17 E 05-May L1
Chicago 71 89 0.444 24 E 06-Apr W3
Kansas City 68 92 0.425 27 E 03-Jul L3

So the season is coming to a close and the Beloved Tigers will not be making it to post-season play. Seems the slump they had in August did them in.

There has been a few articles on how last year's World Series participants aren't in the post season. It seems the St. Louis Cardinals had a worse season then the Tigers. But before you moan and groan, consider this:

The Tigers are only 9 games behind last years' pace. It's not so much they did poorly its just that the Cleveland Indians, from 78-84 to 95-69. That's as an impressive turn around as the Tigers had last year.

The good news, the Tigers are still strong and with the fact that Jim Leyland wants to return
to the team for the next couple of years means the Tigers will be contenders.

MLB - Florida Marlins/New York Mets Recap Friday September 28, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports

MLB - Florida Marlins/New York Mets Recap Friday September 28, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports


This is one of those Catch up on Baseball Blogs. So the Amazin' Mets are in the process of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. After having what some thought was an insurmoutable lead in the NL East have decided to go on a massive skid and have handed first place over to the Philadelphia Phillies.

What is even more interesting is the loss of first place puts them in a situation where they are unlikely even to make it into post-season play. That's what I call impressive. In fact the article quoted is using words such as "historic" to describe the melt-down. Seems that the Mets will be wearing the title of "Choke" unless they can turn it around in the next two games. Let's go Marlins.

Ubuntu 7.10 Beta Released

On the 27th of September, The people behind Ubuntu released to the general public the beta of Gutsy Gibbon. The final release is scheduled for October 18th. While there is warning on the page that this may not necessarily a stable release, it will give you a good idea what to expect with 7.10 when you download it on that, or perhaps a day or two later.

What is new? First of all, this is based upon Gnome 2.20, the latest manifestation of the desktop environment for Linux distributions. This release contains a number of features which enhance the experience for users. Second, there is a very nice desktop applet which can be used to search both the Internet and your computer for files and documents, plus websites.

It comes with the latest of both Firefox and Open Office to continue the productive nature of Ubuntu. Couple this with Thunderbird as both the calendar and Calendar you got quite a nice OS to do some serious work with.

With my computer, unfortunately I cannot used the enhanced desktop features which are based upon Compiz Fusion. I'm going to try it on the family computer to gain an appreciation of the working of it. From what I've seen of screenshots it is quite impressive and will give both Vista and Mac OSX a run. There is also a good screen configuration tool with the OS.

What has also impressed me is the fact that I can use my Canon IP3000 Printer as the network printer. Before I could never get the right drivers but now it is possible. It's great to send documents to be printed and watch them come out perfectly. The release notes also point out there is automatic configuration when a printer is plugged into the machine, I'll try that with my HP at a later time.


If you have already installed Ubuntu, you can go to Gutsy Upgrade Documentation for information on downloading and installing Gutsy on your computer. If you like to use betas this is a good way to begin an appreciation of this system. Otherwise you can wait another 3 weeks and download the finished product.

I plan to download it when it's available and until them I plan to do some exploring of the new release.

Tonight, TigerNation is RedSox Fan

Lawrence Peter Berra, the great baseball philospher and NY Yankee catcher, who is best known as "Yogi", was quoted as saying "the two words that best describe baseball is 'anything can happen'". This describes the Tiger Season to this point. What a ride, what an incredible ride. We all thought last year was amazing and it was by the way, the worst team in baseball American League Champions. The Detroit Tigers fooled everyone and surprised all the long suffering fans with one of those great seasons. Of course when this year started, expectations were high. One difference between this year and last is everyone was waiting for the Tigers, they weren't going to fool anyone.

Things were going well, it looked like the Tigers were going to repeat as Champions or at least make the play-offs. It was going too good, even after the injuries of the early season, the loss of Kenny Rogers for the first three months, Joel Zumaya missing most of the season, only coming back in August and a number of other little injuries. Couple this with a bullpen that was either incredible or incredulous but they stayed at the top.

However August came and the Tigers had a very bad month, going 11-18 and falling out of first place in the Central. The month was so bad they fell out of any hope even for the wild-card.

Then comes September and as of this day, the Tigers have won 11 games, the same as all of August. They are also winning series again, something that they were incapable of in August. Right now the Tigers are clawing their way to the top of both the Central and the Wild Card, 2.0 games out of the latter and 4.5 out behind Cleveland.

Tonight, the hated and despised Yankees are in Boston to finish a series with Boston Red Sox and guess which team I'm cheering for? Tonight, Tigers could be 1.5 games out of the Wild Card.

I close with another quote from Yogi It ain't over 'til its over.

This is why we love baseball.

The Canadian Press: CFL to allow fans to vote online for division and league all-star teams

The Canadian Press: CFL to allow fans to vote online for division and league all-star teams

This is a good idea. Anything that gets the fans interested in the league and the game.

Let's face it, the CFL is a good league, it competitive and entertaining, plus the players are not huge dorks, or wife beaters, or dog killers.

Support your local CFL franchise.

Quantum Physics

As explained by the average house cat,

or should I say average Lolcat:



You have to keep up with advances in science after all.

Something Interesting I found

One of the projects I've been working on is attempting to upgrade a computer I'm going to get my hands on. It's one that is in storage and is simple inventory. It's an XP machine and while is generally works and does a very good job, it is missing a few things. To give an example, the sound card seems not to work; even after downloading the proper drivers, there is still no sound.

This could have meant I would have had to purchase a sound card and do some installation, not that it's difficult, although the guess would have been if the machine had a PCI slot, or a regular one, and then there's the guessing.

Then, when just surfing through Ebay I came across a USB Sound Adaptor. It's works with the simple principle that it is a USB devise and so it is plug and play.

The price was very reasonable and even with the postage and handling a worthwhile investment.

Today the devise came:



The Specs are as follows:

PD552 has two jacks, one for headset, the other for microphone.
a. USB audio adapter
b. USB 1.1 and 2.0 compliant
c. USB bus-powered capability
d. 3D sound technology virtual 5.1-channel sound field
e. Hot plug-and-play USB interface, eliminates the need of a traditional sound card
f. Supports USB suspend/resume modes and remote wakeup
g. Apply advanced Xear 3D technology to the product, fully support many kinds of sound frequency such as MPG/DAT/AVI/MPG4/RM/MOV ect, and functions such as EAX1.0/2.0, HRTF, 3DX ect.
h. PD552---Virtual speaker shifter, freely set and switch the microphone mode or speaker mode
i. PD552---Record function by microphone; 16 rhythm modes for selection

I plugged it into the computer and waited for it to be found. Once that was done I plugged in headphones and fired up Windows Media Player. It worked quite well.

It is made by a company called Comodow . While not necessary I have downloaded the driver and will install it at a later time. I presume the drivers will allow for some of the special features mentioned in the specs, but for listening and also for using with a head microphone it works very well.

I also plan to install some speakers into it and see if that works as well. If it does then forget about the sound card, this will more then do.

Just something for your interest.

756*

No doubt Stephanie will have an articulate response to the events of last night, Barry Bonds hitting and therefore surpassing the Great Hank Aaron as Baseball's All-Time Home Run Hitter. I thought I'd be the first to post how the record should look, at asterisk denoting the fact that this record was helped by Performance Enhancing Drugs, allegedly.

Now consider and contrast the celebration of when Hank broke the Immortal Babe Ruth's record



Notice the joy that surrounded his trip around the bases. Now compare and contrast it with Barry Bond homerun



Perhaps this will be the final event in the era of baseball known as The Steroid Era. 1997-2007, when may of the hallowed records of baseball were broken by players who were juiced up on the cream and the clear.

Let us now begin the era of clean ball, when players went to the plate with nothing more in their system then bubblegum and sunflower seeds.

42

Any number that reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and continue iterating until it yields 1 is a happy number, any number that doesn't, isn't. A happy prime is both happy and prime. NOW TYPE IT IN! [turns to captain] I don't know, talk about dumbing down. Don't they teach recreational mathematics anymore?

It's been a month since I've done any blogging. I'm going to say it's part of the moving and adjusting to life in the new city of Brantford, or the fact I've done a fair bit of cycling. Been to a few places outside of Brantford and been traveling the bike trail in the city.

Well, it's Civic Holiday here and so I decided this is the day I would start doing some blogging.

Okay, I decided to watch this week's episode of Doctor Who. Again, because of the move I wasn't able to watch the first couple of episodes so I've had to do some catching up, and I've missed some of the arc. When I watched the name "42", I thought this should be a good episode because we all know what '42' means. We do all know what '42' means? The first person with the answer will get a gold star.

Turns out, it is not what I thought, in fact the number refers to the time left before something rather nasty happens.

It was a good episode, but I felt it was in some way a re-run of the ideas that were done in Series Two. Still it's a good one with some interesting arcs. Such as the end, when the people trying to trace Martha's cellphone call make reference to a Mr. Saxon. Now you can follow the link and learn all about it, or watch the rest of the series. Personally I look forward to seeing how this all works out and it should be a good thing.

Another thing, how does Martha's phone give such good reception, she never drops a call, she's plummeting towards a sun and she's still able to handle a conversation. Most of us lose the call when we walk indoors! Here's what should happen, the Doctor patents his work and takes over the global cellular market- take that Steve Jobs.

I think I'm going to have to go back and watch the previous episodes to get an idea of the entire series.

Just a few more thoughts:

Freeman Agyeman started the series by filling in some huge shoes, Billie Piper was a great companion. I've also learned she's leaving after only one series, although she will appear in series four, towards the end.

I decided to resubscribe to Whotopia, the Canadian Doctor Who Magazine, what made my decision was the cover article on Christopher Eccleston.

Holiday starts tomorrow.

Peace

Life in Brantford

I looked at the date of my last entry, May 30th. May 30th!!!! Has it been that long? Well, what with the packing and all that, things were quite hectic. Now that we are unpacked, I decided to take a few photographs so you can see at least our house.







To give the tour, the first is the front of the house, the second is our patio and the third is our backyard. The road at the back is Park. We are in the northern part of Brantford, in fact the sign welcoming people to Brantford is only a few metres north of the property line.

The house is a very pleasant side split with five bedrooms. Three are upstairs and two are downstairs. We have converted one of the downstairs bedroom into a library exercise room. The house has been tastefully decorated and very nice. The downstairs has a family room with a gas fireplace and I expect it will be well used when the colder weather comes.

The patio is a small area but quite suitable for sitting outside and enjoying the warm weather. There is a table with an umbrella so its nice to sit outside and listen to the radio or just relax.

Just before Jo-Anne and I, plus Theo and Eowyn left Essex, my family threw a 50th birthday party for me. It is the 14th of July but I wasn't going to be around. It was a good time and I did get a lot of gifts. With some of my gifts I decided it was time to buy another mountain bike. Now that I was moving to a larger centre, I thought it would be better to ride. My mountain bike is approximately 12 years old and while it has a lot of kilometres on it, Vancouver, Trenton, Niagara Falls and Essex, plus a few races, the Great Lake to Lake and Windsor Tri-Duathlon, it was time. So I went to the local SportChek to look at bikes, they were having a sale. After talking with a salesperson and listening to his recommendation, I bought a K2 ZedSPHT07 bike, and it is a beauty. The colour is blue and it is has 21 speeds.




It is a great ride and I've used it to discover Brantford.

There's a number of things to see in Brantford, but I'll save that for another blog.