Ramblings...

RAMBLINGS HAS MOVED - Please Update!

2006-05-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

NOTICE: Please update your blogrolls/links/bookmarks - "Ramblings" has a news home at www.oshawapilot.ca

No further posts will be made here at blogger.com.

Please visit the new site to comment, and catch more up to date news!

Thanks for all my faithfull readers. I look forward to seeing you at my new home.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OSHAWAPILOT.CA NOW!

Amusing...

2005-12-19T22:03:00.000-05:00

In case you can't read it:

"Some people are like a Slinky. Not really good for anything, But you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs."

I saw this printed out at one of my customers today on an employee message board. Somehow had photoshopped the saying into a serene "Deep Thought" setting.

Heh. I know a few people like that.

My car is a magnet.

2005-12-10T13:40:00.000-05:00

For lack of anything to post on my other blog after having completed my pilots licence training, I thought perhaps it was time to post something here.

I've decided that my car is a magnet for other vehicles.

In the last year I've been hit four times, none being my fault.

A year or so ago someone scuffed my right front bumper in a parking lot while my wife was driving my car. Hit and run, no responsibilty taken. Minor, and I didn't even notice it for a few weeks untill I washed the car, but irritating none the less.

Then, About 6 months ago someone ran into the back of me at a red light. Minor damage, mostly just chipped paint to my bumper. He offered to pay cash for the repairs, and we exchanged information.

I promptly lost the guys phone number about 2 weeks after final arrangements were made for the repairs, and I never heard from him again.

Then, about 2 months ago, someone ran into me at work with a much larger vehicle then my own. The results were, amazingly enough (Given the size of what hit me) very minor - some scuffs and minor black marks on my front bumper. Ironically, on the opposite side of the earlier scuff.

Another few inches and a good portion of the front of my car would have been removed.

Repairs on this one are still in the chute...not sure if it's worth bothering about, I can probably buff it out come spring. If I do claim it, the guy who hit me gets nailed with a preventable accident in a company vehicle.

Then earlier today the plumber working across the street at a neighbours house apparently backed into me with his service van.

He had the decency to come and see me and admit his goof, so I give him alot of credit for that. It's such a minor scuff that I probably wouldn't have noticed it again for quite a while, consider my car is covered in road salt and all the usual winter gunge right about now.

I got the handy rubbing compound out and buffed 95% of the mark out. The rest, I'm not worried about, since the rear bumper needs paint anyways.

Sheesh.

I'm almost hoping that someone *really* runs into me now, just enough to either write the poor car off, or do enough damage to warrant painting the entire car.

Dead days at work...

2005-11-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

For those that read my two blogs, you may have already figured out what I do for a living.

I don't discuss it much since it leads people to lump me into a stereotype in which I don't really fit...or that most of us deserve, for that matter. Yes, I do the job, but I'm not your typical guy doing it.

Come to think of it, the stereotype that most of us guys get nailed with doesn't hold true...like I said.

Regardless, being a well educated individual, with a tech background and studying for (and on the verge of obtaining) a pilots licence puts me firmly outside of the stereotyped view that I fall into when people discover what I do for a living.

I dont really care either way, actually, as I rather enjoy "popping" peoples stereotype bubbles once they get to know me first, and then find out my career after the fact.

Anyhow...

I just finished what could quite possibly be one of the slowest work-weeks for me in the history of my current career. Things have been so slow that I've routinely spent about 50% (literally) of my 5 work days this week "killing time".

Now, I'm not complaining about getting paid to wander a mall for 2 or 3 hours, or browse a WalMart or Canadian Tire store and gawk, but there does come a time where it gets tired.

I get paid by the hour, so its all the same to me.

I work in a pretty dedicated geographical area, so my options for "new and exciting" ways to kill time are slim.

Since I've been working in this same area for about 3 years now, I'm running out of stuff to do.

Now, I know, I know... Cry me a river for getting paid to do what others often don't have time to do during their off-time, but alas, it gets boring.

My lunch is supposed to be a half hour, but when there's nothing to do, I can stretch it out to an hour, or two....sometimes three, if I want. Lots of time to read the paper and down copious amounts of coffee.. :-)

I'm don't have to be concerned about getting in trouble, since I report the idle time accordingly, and my company fully know about it. What I do with it is my business, as long as I don't do anything stupid while on company time with my *very* conspicious company vehicle.

Read as: No strip clubs, no bars, etc. :-)

That sort of stuff isn't my bag anyways..... I'd rather tuck my company vehicle into a corner at a mall, walk in, and browse. Radio Shack and the other electronic goodie stores are good prospects any day of the week..

Anyhow, all the positives of this makes one wonder about the negatives - if its this slow, one wonders about their job security. Being slow is OK, but being *this* slow, as nice as getting paid to do nada is, makes me concerned.

I'm unionized, and have enough people below me that I'm not going to be kicking stones for the fact that 1, 2, 3 or more people get laid off....as unfortunate as that would be.

But, there are enough dynamics in our business that something could still happen causing a catastrophic loss of positions, which *would* effect me.

Here's to hoping that doesn't happen. I really do like working here.

I'm still clean!

2005-10-16T07:40:00.000-05:00

As I sat in front of a friends PC a few days ago trying to fix a problem, I came to the realization of something interesting.

As I'm a technically oriented type of guy, I'm frequently the one who gets the phone call when a familly members PC is acting up, or electronics don't work as they should.

When it comes to PC's, it usually includes a visit to the related house to work on the computer in person. We all know that there is only so much that can be done via remote desktop, especially when the diagnosis over the phone of exactly what is wrong to begin with is cryptic at best.

Generally with few exceptions, when I sit down to work at a computer that I have not worked on before, I begin with the inevitable spyware / virus check.

And sadly, pretty much every single time I do these checks, I discover a computer overrun with both, and an owner who really just didn't know that they were infected to begin with, nor how to protect themselves.

So, I spend an hour (or three) removing spyware and cleaning virii. It's frustrating at times, especially considering how deeply some of the newer spyware and virii inbed themselves in Windows.

I check the virus scanner (if there's even one installed) to ensure it's definitions are up to date. All to freequently, it's not. I install AVG - free, effective, and...did I mention free?

Spybot and AdAware are also good friends in the battle. Hardware firewalls are best, software ones will suffice in the absense of.

Once the cleaning is done I usually explain how it happened, what to do to prevent it in the future, and then proceed to fix the initial complaint...which was often the direct result of the spyware/virus' to begin with.

I always install Firefox after the fact, and tell everybody to throw Internet Explorer into the trash heap. A good majority of the problems dissapear right there.

Then, I explain the evils of filesharing, which frequently their kids are the ones doing, but the parents PC's pay the price. The software itself is commonly a problem, but what's downloaded after the fact is even more problematic.

Then, a lesson on the importance of keeping ones virus scanner software up to date, and occasionally running a spyware scanner.

Anyhow, once it's all completed, I leave behind a PC that's faster, safer, problem free, and an owner who is better educated and more capable of keeping their own systems clean from here on out.

But what I realized a few days ago when it came to my own systems, is that it actually WORKS if you stay ahead of things. The best cure is prevention to begin with - It's been at least 2 years now since I've had a single peice of Spyware or a single virus invade any of my 4 systems - 2 desktops, and 2 laptops.

And it's not hard to accomplish this.

I only wish everyone had the knowledge and awareness to accomplish the same.

Good news / Bad news.

2005-09-16T18:15:00.000-05:00

Good news: My new HipTop arrived. I'm connected again while out and about town.

Enough of that. Suffice to say I'm a happy camper. :-)

Bad news: We were notified today that the GM Truck Plant in Oshawa is shutting down for the first two weeks of January. Since the company I work for is a Tier-1 company, this could possibly result in me being laid off for this 2 week period.

For the GM Employees, this amounts to little more then an extra long Christmas vacation, as they receive a good portion of their paycheck regardless when laid off.

Us guys, not so much.

So, with any luck my seniority will carry me through this without any interruption to my paycheck, but that's 50/50 at this point.

Fun fun fun.

It's almost over...

2005-09-14T18:26:00.000-05:00

My connectivity to the mobile world will return Friday evening.

I bought a replacement HipTop off eBay. $150 CDN for this little puppy, basically new as the owner just received it as a warranty replacement for a dead HipTop of his own.

Not a bad deal, even if it is only a last-gen unit. Hopefully this one lasts me the 6 months untill I upgrade to the HipTop2, and I can resell it.

HipTop's (At least the last generation model) were not known for their reliability or build quality. When mine was under warranty, I went through three of them - the one that died last Friday being the third.

Now, for a kid, trashing cellphones with this sort of effeciency would be expected, but I'm hardly a kid. I treat my electronics with fanatical care. My HipTop's have always had easy and carefully protected lives.

However, the first one suddenly went mute for no apparent reason after a few months of usage. I could still hear phone conversations, but the seperate speaker that was used for ringtones and system sounds went dead. Without a ringer, it was kind of useless, so Fido exchanged it. Not without a fight though, as apparently not having a ringer is not a "Critical" defect. WTF?

The second one, the "Back" button broke off. It always felt flimsy, and apparently even regular usage is enough to break it.

The third one (My latest), the back button got wonky on too (Although it has not yet fallen off), but then it inexplicably died last Friday, as I mentioned.

Now, if these things were not like Crack (As a comment on my last post was made about Blackberries being referred to as "Crackberries" frequently..and it's true..athough I've never done drugs, I can only assume.. Heh) I would probably have just cancelled my Data plan for 6 months, and when I was eligible an April, gotten a new one at the discounted price.

However, I'm totally screwed without this thing at work. How did I ever survive before without a mobile web browser, access to all my email accounts, a notepad, a To Do list, a callendar with appointment scheduling, a phone and address book...and oh yeah, a cellphone.

Not only that, but as soon as I cancelled my Data plan, all of my actual Data (Which is stored on a backend server) would be trashed.

The advantage of these nifty things is that in a situation such as a warranty exchange, or any change in device does not result in the frustrating "Re enter all my information" syndrome.

Since *everything* (Right down to ringtone and customized preferences) is stored on the Backend, as soon as I insert my existing SIM card into my new device, and provide my FidoHipTop username and password, everything starts automatically restoring itself from the backend server within minutes.

Within an hour or so, my new replacement HipTop is functionally identical to the old one, all automatically, courtesy of about 5 or 6 megs of GPRS data transmission.

It's a great feature, and is one of the little gems that keeps us diehard users with the platform.

That, and the fact that it's kind of addictive. ;-)

Withdrawl..

2005-09-13T17:57:00.000-05:00

My beloved Fido HipTop died last Friday.

No, Fido is not a dog. A Fido HipTop is kinda like a Blackberry, but more consumer oriented.

I've had this little gizmo for about a year and a half, and have found it indispensable (Read as: Addictive) in my job. The ability to check my email, surf the web, keep notes and appointments, and just about everything else on such a great little device is highly addictive.

All of a sudden at about 11AM on Friday, it all went wrong. My HipTop suddenly disconnected from the cellular GPRS network, and refused to reconnect. No phone functionality, either.

Initially I thought it was a network problem. Then the hours passed, and still no connection.

To keep a long story short, after alot of diagnosis and testing, it appears that the radio portion of the device is shot. It still boots and seems functional, but if it won't connect to the cellular network, it's effectively a doorstop.

So, I got another cellphone to put my SIM card in, and at least be able to use my talk plan.

However, I'm totally lost without my HipTop. I'm so used to checking my email and surfing the net through the day.

I find myself repeatedly reaching for my hip, where my HipTop is always resident, and it's just not there.

I think I'm suffering from HipTop Withdrawl. :-)

Hey, anyone have a used HipTop that was designed for the Microcell Fido network here in Canada that they'd like to give/sell/lend me?

Yeah, didn't think so. :-)

Fido want's $550 for a replacement unit. I'm not eligible for a $200 discounted price untill my contract is up in April.

Untill then, since my warranty is expired, I'm apparently screwed.

And lost without it.

Retro!

2005-09-05T19:42:00.000-05:00

My parents have sold their house and are moving to an apartment. They have reached an age where they cannot maintain the house any longer. It's going to be a huge change for them, as they have lived in houses all of their lives.

As such, the crunch time is coming, and I was told in no uncertain terms that it was time for me to come and get all of my crap out of storage in their garage and basement, and actually bring it home.

So, today, I did that.

Back home tonight, I went through some of it. Wow, what a blast of history.

Yearbooks from the early 80's. School journals from the 70's. A Commodore 1541 disk drive, still in the original box. Boxes full of printouts, paperwork, manuals, and 5 1/4 floppy discs from my days as a BBS SysOp.

Old computer equipment galore, most of which there isn't even functional systems for it to work with anymore. (How many people have C64's and Amiga 500's still alive?)

Anyone want a 300 baud modem? Or a couple of 2400's?

CBM iEEE data cables?

I found boxes and boxes of my life from years past.

It was kind of cool reliving your life in this way, looking back on what I used to do, what I used to read, what I used to type.

And I've got more stuff to sort through yet.. :-)

A good laugh!

2005-08-31T21:54:00.000-05:00

A friend emailed me the following link a day or two again.. I just got around to listening to it tonight, and it's hillarious!

Little old ladies beat the bejesus out of a guy

Turn up your PC's volume. :-)

I submitted it as an Audio link to my favourite website Fark this evening, but alas, it had already been submitted a few days ago, and surprisingly not greenlit.

Anyhow, enjoy.

Primus scores big after letdowns...

2005-08-30T18:10:00.000-05:00

For anyone who has been following my saga with my transition from PSTN (Plain switched telephone network) to VoIP (Voice over IP), there have been some happenings.

First, I finally took the full dive, and as of last week our household is *fully* on VoIP. We no longer have a dialtone if you hookup to the phonelines that run into our house.

All of our calls now go via the Internet. The advantages, for those not familliar with VoIP?

Phone service, including every conceivable call-feature available (including those not available on regular PSTN service), unlimited local and USA/Canada long distance, and more, for only $29 a month.

This constitutes about 1/3 of what I was paying for our Bell line and long distance on a monthly basis previously.

It has, however, not been without pains. When I first signed up, I was ready to throw in the towel, as there was problems.

Then, last week, Primus instituted a massive system upgrade in order to comply with new E911 regulations. Things went horribly wrong.

For about a day and a half total, we had no dialtone, although incoming calls worked fine, and outgoing calls could still be initiated using the PC interface to force our home phones to ring after initiated. (Long story, a VoIP feature).

Then, for the last week, voicemail has been screwed up. Other calling features randomly turned themselves on and off, and other strangeties.

Calls to tech support were met with knowledgable technies who shared in our frustration, but could only add our names to tickets, and not do much else. They were "Working on it as quick as possible" we were assured.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is that it all seems fixed now.

Alot of people were in the Primus message forum screaming bloody murder. Many of us, myself included, were not terribly happy, but have managed.

Then this evening, the following message was posted by Primus themselves in the message forums:

Sorry if this is long, but it's been a long couple of weeks and I'd rather give you more deail than less.

As you know, we put in a big system upgrade in the wee hours of August 18th. We put it in for all the right reasons, like 911 improvements, system scalability and feature enhancements. We had been testing this upgrade for four months, and had invested literally thousands of hours on it.

Unfortunately, due to a bunch of bugs, this has to be our most difficult upgrades yet. In fact, we're still chasing a couple of parts of it nearly a week later. When the upgrade first went in, we experienced a problem due to system load that nearly made us back it out. The reason we didn't is that the software vendor that makes our switching platform realized the cause of the bug was a problem that has existed for many major versions, and that downgrading wouldn't fix it. We were stuck with a version we knew was causing us problems, and no way to go back to the previous version, because we already had the problem. Our vendor assured us it would be fixed that night. While it was patched (workaround) Thursday mid-day, we experienced a few load related hiccups through the day until properly fixing things late that night.

The first 6 hours after a major upgrade are very critical for a number of reasons, but most importantly because you hear about all sorts of little things that never crop up in your testing ("why can I access my voicemail, even if it's supposedly locked", "why don't I see Caller ID if I live in Montreal and dial from a Montreal based phone", etc). The issue we faced is that we missed the window. Things were so busy during that first 6 hours that there was no reasonable way for us to hear it all, despite having massively staffed up for the two days following the upgrade. Instead of calling in about lesser problems, people figured that we must have known already. Putting the pieces together and building a definitive list of these little items was far harder than we ever imagined.

So, where are we now? We have a couple of cleanup items to deal with, but are otherwise into the single customer type issues. We're working off the tickets, so if you have a ticket, rest assured it's being worked. As of now we have all the biggies dealt with, and are on to the ancillary services. Without question, these will all be sorted out in the next couple of days.

Of the items found since the upgrade, only one could have reasonably been found before load hit the platform. That would be the locked voicemail accounts still being accessible. That said, while none of our 30 testers thought to try this, we have it on our test plan for the next go around.

That brings me to the next go around. First of all, we're going to post details of any major system upgrades on the announcements forum. Secondly, we're opening a beta forum (mentioned elsewhere already), and plan to have a formal announcement up in the announcement forum shortly. In this new Beta forum, we're hoping to get around 200 customers to help test these new releases. Even with 200 testers, we wouldn't have found most of the load related problems we experienced, but it will expose you guys to things much earlier, and allow us to get your great feedback.

Looking forward, we're talking about a new approach to upgrades which would move users in groups amongst systems. This would have allowed us to see groups of 1000 users at a time move to the new system. While it will take us several weeks to do upgrades that way, we'll drastically reduce our exposure that the last week has been. We're not sure how practical this will be, but we're looking into it.

Lastly, on behalf of all of us at Primus, we're very sorry for the trouble and inconvenience this has caused you. We know this has been a crazy couple of weeks, and we thank you for sticking with us through it. We are issuing credits for service to everyone who opened a TalkBroadband related ticket between August 18th and 29th in an attempt to show you how seriously we take the situation, and how much we value you as our customer. If you are on the Basic or Ultimate packages, you'll be receiving a $10.00 credit shortly. If you're on the Unlimited package, it will be a $20.00 credit. It may not be like having Ed McMahon knocking on your door, but hopefully it gets our message across that we know this should have gone much better, and we're going to do everything we can to make it better next time.

Now, when was the last time you ever saw a company come out and publicly say "We screwed up, we admit it, and we are taking steps to ensure it never happens again"?

And that, in a nutshell, is what will likely keep me a Primus Canada customer for a long time to come.

Yes, VoIP is bleeding edge technology, and those of us (like my household) who have taken the plunge to become early adopters will without doubt pay a small price every now and then, but I love this sort of thing.

Service interruptions aside. ;-)

And the $60+/Month I save isn't shabby, either!

Whining

2005-08-19T07:08:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I made an entry here. Thought I should catch up on life.

Not a whole lot to catch up on, really. Life goes on. My vacation has came and went, and we didn't do much this year really, compared to two vacations last summer.

The fuel pump on my car did indeed finally die. I did the work myself - about 5 hours total labour to drop the fuel tank and replace the pump, and then remount the tank. $200 for a used pump. I saved about $1600 versus having it done at a garage, as a new pump is $800 wholesale ($1200 retail!!), and labour is quite serious with this job as well.

Sometimes my mechanical abilities pay off.

So, now, a diatribe.

I belong to a local part of the FreeCycle network. If you havn't seen this before, check it out, there is more then likely a community in your area.

Basically, the motto of this network is "One persons trash is anothers treasure". That boxload of stuff that's been sitting in your garage for 5 years may just be exactly what someone else needs. Same goes vice-versa.

I've gotten some great stuff off of Freecycle. A few of my best grabs in the past years are as follows:

1/ A set of fully functional Noma low voltage lights. These now grace our front walkway and garden.

2/ About 100 square feet of ceramic tile, new in boxes.

3/ A APC 1200XL UPS system. Gifter thought it was working, but I can't get it to power up, but I'm going to get it fixed, as this is $1000+ unit, and I suspect it's only a minor problem.

We have also gotten alot of other misc smaller items over the years.

We also offer alot of stuff, and have never had any problems getting rid of stuff, as even the most obscure thing seems to always find someone who would love to have it.

It's a really great system.

But....

I'm sick and tired of the whining, bickering, crying, and blubbering that goes on in several of our local groups.

Since this is primarilly an email-based system, these whiny peoples emails end up in all members mailboxes.

Not only is it a small proportion of the members that feel the need to do this, but also the admin in some cases.

Yes, not everything you go to pickup is "perfect".

I've picked up some junk that was advertised as being much more glorious.

Yes, sometimes people just never actually come to pickup stuff that they enthusiastically say they want after you post it as taken, and hold it for them.

Yes, sometimes people ask for rediculous things. I've seen people ask for motorhomes, video cameras, laptops, and other stuff. Don't get your panties in a knot and post rude messages to the entire group about these requests. It's unlikely they will get the stuff to begin with, but if they do, WHO CARES? Your loss!

And yes, sometimes transactions don't go perfectly.

BUT IT'S ALL FREE and supposed to be done in GOOD WILL!

People, get some perspective, and most importantly, if you feel the need to bitch, whine, or cry about something that happened to you or someone else on Freecycle, DO IT IN PRIVATE with the administration!

Don't post a message to all 1500 members of a local group crying that someone gave you a set of dishes, and when you got home one of them had a chip, and you would "never" use them in that condition because your just above that, and they are just garbage and should never have been offered, and the person that offered them is a jerk because of this, and he should be banned from the group, and so on and so on, ad infinitum.

Sheesh!

I've seen some of the most unthankfull, greedy, and whiny people in the Freecycle system. Thankfully, the greater majority of people are nice, and the system runs smoothly and effectively, but with a greatly increasing number of whiny members joining the groups, and apparently feeling no shame in posting rude and hostile messages to the public forums, it's getting frustrating.

It almost makes me want to just throw my arms up and unsubscribe.....but I'll stick with it for the meantime, as I really think that the system still has alot to offer otherwise.

But it is frustrating sometimes.

Checkout your local Freecycle group at www.freecycle.org and see if yours are any better. :-)

/end diatribe.

Disaster averted!

2005-07-21T21:39:00.000-05:00

On the way home this evening, after a quick stop at the grocery story, my car wouldn't restart.

Now, I'm a fairly knowledgeable car guy, having grown up with a mechanic father who owned his own 4 bay garage all through my childhood.

So, in the parking lot of the grocery store, I narrowed it down to fuel starvation. First, I had thought that I had just ran out of fuel. My guage gets wonky when it gets below 1/4, where it was, so I went for a walk to the nearest gas station to get a jerry can of gas.

No "loaner" jerry can at first one. They would be happy to sell me one for $16. What a deal. Not.

Second gas station, same story. WTF?!

So, I went to a used car dealer and they were nice enough to loan me one. I begrudgingly went back to the same gas station as I had first visited, and filled it up. Gasboy seemed upset that I had apparently found a loaner. Nyah!

Returned to car, put gas in tank, still no start.

Ok, perhaps air in the lines, vapor lock, or a blown fuse?

Nope, nope, and nope.

Perhaps just not quite enough fuel replenished, if it was bone dry to start. Jerry can only held 10 litres.

Return again to gas station, get another 10L. Gasboy seems amused, I'm sure he laug at me in his head as I sweat buckets and he sits in his airconditioned gas-shack.

Return to car, Put gas in tank. Still no start.

Argh!?

It's 30 degrees out and I'm sweating to death now, wishing I was home. We were supposed to be going out for dinner, and I'm now an hour late, and no closer to home.

I began to think that my fuel pump must have bought the farm. Sure enough, I can't hear it running when I check it. Hmm.

My wife comes and rescues me, and we head home for me to clean up and go out to dinner. I call my dad and arrange for him to meet me at the car later to tow it to his house where he has a TajmaGarage (Get it, Tajmahal, Tajmagarage? Hardy har har) and it would be easier to work on it. I do all my maintenace there.

After dinner, we head back to the stranded car. Fruitlessly, I try again to start it. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't.

10 minutes later my dad rolls in, and in his typical mechanics mind, he suggests we try something easy first before moving onto the more complicated..

He suggests a little percussive maintenance.

Sure enough, a light rap on the fuel tank with a hammer restarts the fuel pump, and the car roars to life.

Whew!

The jury is still out on what caused it... A loose wire, bad ground, or perhaps the pump is indeed dying.

All I know was that I'm glad it's home...and I'm about $500 richer having not had to buy a fuelpump.

Yet. :)

Things that make you go "Hmmmm".

2005-07-20T17:59:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember that song? Heh. I'm giving away my age, and the music tastes I had as a kid in the early 90's.

Anyhow... The hot and generally miserable weather continues. The humidity was not quite as unbearable today, but will be back tommorow they say.

We got a bit of rain over the weekend, which we desperately needed, but it was by no means enough to aleviate the drought we are suffering here in Southerin Ontario.

Water conservation has pretty much been instituted everywhere in the province, and I'm watching my lawn slowly dry to a crisp as a result. It's kind of sad. They say we may get another spattering of rain tommorow, but what we really need is a few good days of steady rain, and not these 15 minute thunderstorm dumps.

I really just wish the weather would break and we could get some cooler weather for a few days. I'm dreading opening my next hydro bill, as it's going to be astronomical as a result of all the A/C usage.

I can never remember a summer like this before...ever.

Anyhow, we are planning to head up north to the Algonquin area in a few weeks.

We were in the area last fall when we visited a couples resort for my wifes 30'th birthday. It's an absolutely stunning area in the near-north of Ontario, and for anyone who has never been there it is a great destination if you love the outdoors. This pic was taken from the balcony of our suite at Beartrails, the resort in question.

We will be heading up to the area again in a few weeks for a relatives birthday party, and are making plans to go riding again.

Other then flying, horseback riding is another hobby that I love, but rarely get to do simply because we do not own our own horses, nor can we afford to ride frequently, as it's not an inexpensive hobby.

Regardless, we have ridden in some awesome places:

Above, me and my wife Christie riding in Algonquin Provincial Park... Well, actually, the picture was taken in the parking lot of the stable, but since it was hunting season we had to wear silly looking (but important) yellow vests to avoid getting mistaken for a deer. They made for crappy pictures. Sadly, the parking log picture was the best. :-)

And the last picture of todays blog entry, mounting up in Whistler British Columbia... Yeah, another crappy picture (Neither of us are actually even in it!), but that's what happens when your digital camera goes dead just as you about to hit the trail, and your spare batteries are in the car. It was a shame, riding in mountains was nice.

Anyhow, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

2005-07-12T22:30:00.000-05:00

Please, oh please, would someone send some rain to Ontario?

Now, I know we all complained about how cold and wet last summer was, but receiving the complete opposite this year has started to wear thin.

I promise never to complain about the cold again this coming winter. One can always put on more clothes to beat the cold.

However, one quickly reaches a limit on how much more clothing can be taken off in order to try to beat the heat.

Although my company has a pretty loose dress policy, I'm sure that "Boxer Shorts" do not classify as acceptable work clothes. :-)

Lazy vacation.

2005-07-07T15:47:00.000-05:00

My *ahem* unscheduled vacation worked out not too bad. I've not been doing a whole lot except relaxing at home. We were going to go to Paramount Canada's Wonderland today, but that kinda fell through.

Otherwise, it's been a bunch of relaxation. I guess that's what vacation is supposed to be, but in the past my weeks off have been jam packed with motorhome vacations, houseboat vacations, trips to Vancouver...and all kinda of otherwise more interesting things.

This summer, not so much.

I've been thinking alot about beginning the wrap up on my flight training. I'm down to my last handfull of dual lessons, and then I'll be off for some solo recap.

I have to get into the Transport Canada office in Toronto to take my written exams sooner or later. I am paranoid about these tests even moreso then my actual physical flight test, which is basically the last step I need to take in order to obtain my licence.

Anyhow, that pretty much sums up what's on the top of my head this week...very little.

This weekend will be hectic, as we have a familly gathering/BBQ.

Then come Monday, it's back to the grind of work once again for another 4 weeks untill my next vacation period arrives.

CN Tower

2005-07-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd post a few pictures of me and my wife at the CN Tower in Toronto for our 5'th anniversary. We enjoyed a decadent dinner, and the usual great view that the CN tower provides.

Our "self portrait" from the base of the tower. Too bad it was so hazy..

Christie enjoying her dinner, and the view.

Our waiter was nice enough to take a picture for us. That's Toronto's City Center commuter / General Aviation airport behind us.

I had a few more pictures that I was hoping to post, but the new picture hosting service at Blogger.com, umm....really sucks.

Either that or it doesn't play nice with Firefox. Hrmmpphhh...another site that is "designed for Internet Explorer".

Someone needs to inform these websites that IE sucks.

Anyhow, I will try to get the rest posted later.

Happy Canada Day!

2005-07-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

Today was bizzarre. Since it was Canada Day, everything was closed tight, so there wasn't alot to do...since it was so incredibly hot and miserable still outside for the majority of the day, we spent most of it inside bathing in the air conditioning.

Then at about 6PM the most radical change in weather I can ever remember in many years occurred - a cloud bank rolled in (Obviously a cold front), and within about 20 minutes the temperature dropped a good 10 to 15 degrees, the clouds cleared, and the sun came back out. Suddenly, after sitting in the air conditioned house all day, it was cooler outside then it was inside.

Totally bizzarre, but certainly welcome after over one week of sweltering heat!

We went to Bowmanville (Or Boonieville, as all us locals call it) for the fireworks display this year. In the past we have usually went to Oshawa's rather large bash, but the thoughts of getting stuck walking 2 or 3 kilometers back to a parking spot, and then sitting for an hour and a half trying to navigate out of the parking areas somehow didn't appeal to us this year.

Last year it was basically midnight when we got home.

Instead, we decided to take a chance on Boonieville's Canada Day bash, and we were pleasantly surprised...not only was the fireworks show surprisingly good, at about 20 minutes long, but the parking was a non-issue - we were out in about 5 minutes from the time we arrived back at our car, and were headed home.

Thankfully we brought along warm clothes and some blankets, which at about noon we would have laughed if anyone said we would need such. Without them, we would have been freezing, as the temperature dived to 16 degrees from 30 earlier in the day.

Like I said, a totally bizzare change in the weather.

The fireworks show wasn't quite as good as Oshawa's all-in-all, but the trade-off of not having to sit in a sea of cars after the fact for a good portion of the rest of the evening made up for it.

The rest of the weekend is pretty open, other then a scheduled
flying lesson tommorow afternoon...which after the topic of my last blog entry here, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get to yet.

Guess I'd better cook my wife breakfast in the morning, and bring her coffee, eh? :-)

Life sucks sometimes...

2005-06-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a week from hell. I'm glad it's finally over.

The weather for the entire week has been miserable. With the humidex, it's been in the 40's (Celsius) most of the week during the daylight hours. That's over 100 Degrees farenheit for those still using that scale.

The only thing to look forward to is getting home to the central air conditioning at home for the evening, but by then I find myself so incredibly bagged from working out in the heat all day that I've little energy left to do anything except flop on the couch, eat dinner, watch some TV, and then go to bed.

The last two days at work have been beyond miserable. A combination of people seem to think that some of us guys can pull miracles directly out of our assses, and do the work of three people. I usually do my best to just shrug days like these off and do my best, working through my breaks and lunch if need be, but the last two days have just pressed the limit to the extreme edge of my tolerances.

On the flipside, I have days where I find myself with 2 or 3 hours to do with as I please, at which point I'll park and go shopping at a mall, or go cool-off down by the lake and take a walk on the waterfront trails....usually the decent days and the good lazy days weigh out and I take it all in stride.

The last few days however have been nuts. This long weekend could not come soon enough.

The cherry on top of the crappy-week-at-work sundae came tonight when I got home, checked the mail, and found out that my licence had been suspended. I got a couple of stupid tickets a while back, pleaded guilty with an explanation, had the fines dropped signifigantly, and then mailed off cheques.

It's a *real* long story, but apparently the second cheque never got cashed.

So, they suspended my licence, and now want $150 in addition to the apparently still outstanding fine in order to reinstate it, which the letter says may take up to 5 days.

Now, I kinda need my licence for my job....so I may end up taking one of my weeks of vacation next week, instead of the last week of July and first week of August, as I had initially planned.

After the entire week of this crap, I got all pissy this evening and was probably not very much fun to be around. My wife confirmed this.

On the bright side, our asshole neighbours finally moved out today, and new people are moving into the house this evening...again, another long story.

And both of my kids graduated: Jr. Kindergarten and Grade 2 respectively.

I guess at least a few small things went right this week. The rest of it has totally, completely, and wholeheartedly sucked.

Nothing a week in ClubMed wouldn't solve. Now, if I only had a few thousand dollars to spare.

Oh yeah, if I did, I could pay the property taxes that are outstanding.

You know, I'm usually such an overwhelmingly positive and fun person to be around, so most of my friends and coworkers tell me. This week, I'm probably one of the least desirable people to be around.

I don't like this person.

The Aviation Expo arrives.

2005-06-24T18:59:00.000-05:00

As those of you whom read my student pilot blog probably know, I am a student pilot.

It was with great anticipation that I awaited the Canadian Aviation Expo's arrival at my home airport.

The show opened today. I was at the gates at 9AM on the dot as the gates opened to the public. I brought my cooler full of drinks, a fold up chair, and everything else needed to make a day of it. I had booked one of my "Personal Paid Holidays" for this, so I was going to make the best of it.

The show was, well...Ok, I guess.

First, although the airport and air traffic seemed well organized, many other parts of the event seemed hodge-podged together.

Upon my arrival at the ticket purchase area, I was presented with a lady who didn't understand the ticket I wanted to buy. As a COPA member, I was entitled to a 3-day specially priced pass that included ramp-access that was only available to actual pilots. She had no idea what I wanted, and had to ask several other people what colour of wristband that was, and what the cost was.

Then she charged me $6 for the ramp-pass. Hmmm...I thought that was included..?

I paid up, got my wristband, and headed in.

There was a decent mix of planes and exhibitors, and alot of interesting (And very expensive) stuff to look at. I spent a few hours just perusing the booths and gawking into very expensive aircraft.

The Snowbirds were still there from their show on Wednesday, and were departing for the London airshow. I got a frontline view probably no more then 100 feet from their flightline, and watched them depart. They did a single flyover, and then headed west. It was still neat regardless.

Alot of people were very upset...well, pissed actually, that the Snowbirds were not actually performing yesterday. Seems all the newspapers made it appear that the Snowbirds were performing today, and not just "departing" with a flyover.

The show had a PR nightmare on their hands with that one, and apparently had alot of people seeking refunds. Hmm... It was a major screwup indeed.

Anyhow, I bumped into my flight instructor at the Canadian Flight Academy's booth and we chatted for 10 or 15 minutes.

I then went to the next booth over and played with one of their Flight Simulator 2004 system, complete with nifty yokes. This guy was actually trying to sell this as "legitimate" flight training. Yeah, whatever. It was fun to play with for 20 minutes, regardless. Who would have known you can take off a 747 from Oshawa's airport? Heh...

Anyhow, after I went through the booths and exhibitors goodies, I thought I'd head for the ramp to checkout the fly-in traffic.

As I headed for the gate, I was stopped dead by an overzealous lady in a expo t-shirt who beratted me for trying to access this area. I showed her my full-access wristband, and even showed her my COPA membership/access card. She basically told me to screw off unless I had my own plane on the ramp that I had flew in with.

Hmm...so what exactly did I pay extra for?

This prompted a trip to the show office. I explained the confusion of both the ticket seller, and the ramp-lady. Seems one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, as I should not have been charged (The COPA/AOPA weekend pass includes the ramp access), nor should I have been refused access.

One of the senior organizers refunded my money, and went out to straighten a few people out.

I got my ramp access, and headed out to checkout some of the flightline. Nothing terribly interesting, but at least I now felt a "little" special being in the restricted area away from the mere non-pilot mortals. :-)

The airshow started at 1PM, and was kind of neat. Unfortunately the winds were 15 gusting 20 Kts, and as such alot of the aircraft were not able to fly. Those that did were fighting a nasty crosswind. Since runway 04/22 was closed, all traffic was forced to runway 30. With winds at 220, it was a nasty crosswind to have to deal with.

At least the winds made the heavy heat and humidity easier to deal with.

The Memphis Belle was supposed to fly in. It didn't. Something about unforseen problems.

A Lancaster bomber was supposed to fly in. It didn't either. Something about the brakes? I don't know.

It was all kind of dissapointing.

What actually did fly was neat to watch, but was accompanied by a mish-mash of rather unorganized blabber over the shows PA system about what we were supposed to be watching.

The Canadian Forces paradrop team was unable to peroform due to the winds as well.

Overall, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. It wasn't a bust, but it certainly still needs alot of tweaking and better organization in future shows to be realistically able to keep people coming back year after year.

All that aside, on a positive note, my VoIP system is now working flawlessly. :-)

Is it finally resolved?

2005-06-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

Man, I feel like this VoIP thing has been a thorn in my side for some time now.

I so want it to work, and become an acceptable alternative to my POTS line, but at the same time, I have my doubts.

I think I finally got it nailed down tonight though.

Yesterday, before I realised my "Duh" maneuver regarding the DSL filters (See the next post down), I blamed the D-Link VoIP gateway on my DSL connectivity issues.

I changed my setup so that the VoIP gateway was behind my Linksys router.

Then, today, my wife messaged me to inform me that *all* of her calls were getting cut off at about 12 minutes. Repeatedly....12 minutes, every call.

That was too weird.

Anyhow, to keep a very long story short, seems my Linksys router in particular has a hardware issue that causes it to cut off streaming UDP traffic (Which in turn, cuts the VoIP) at about the 12 minute point.

Yep, that's the problem.

I changed the hardware around this evening again so that the D-Link VoIP gateway is once again controlling the DSL modem and PPPoE, and then plugged my router into the Ethernet output plug on the VoIP gateway.

And it all works nicely now.

And I hope it *stays* that way. I can not physically immagine anything else POSSIBLY going wrong, getting misconfigured, bug ridden, or otherwise being problematic. I figure in the first week of my VoIP adventure I've experienced just about *everything* that could possibly go wrong.

I figure I've gotten it licked now.

Whew!

On a side note, the Snowbirds visited Oshawa today in lead-up to the Canadian Aviation Expo this weekend. I had the amazing opportunity to watch the show from a very close vantage point.

If your interested, you can read all about it at my Student Pilot blog here.

VoIP woes..

2005-06-21T21:24:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon, the VoIP suddenly went dead.

All of the tweaking and resetting in the world didn't resolve the problem.

Since I had to fly on Sunday evening, I had to just leave it and head to the airport.

When I returned home, still no service. A call to tech support reveals that my VoIP carrier majorly screwed up. Somehow, the MAC address (The device ID) of my VoIP gateway was now seemingly assigned to someone elses account.

So, clearly it would no longer work with my phone number.

Tech-guy opens a trouble ticket, and says he will look into getting it resolved ASAP, but it could take a day or three. Ugh.

So, Monday morning I changed the house wiring, once again, back to the regular phone line, and left the VoIP gateway to flash a red "out of service" light.

Monday afternoon, still no service, so I call to check on the status of the ticket. I get an arrogant tech support guy who was either having a bad day, or was just incredibly impatient and short.

He advises it could be up to 5 days for me to get my service restored. WTF?

A few hours later the tech whom filed my trouble ticket on Sunday evening called me back on my cellphone to checkup on my account, and service status. No service on my VoIP yet, but hey, at least someone at customer service cares.

That was nice.

This morning, the service is restored, and my VoIP works again. Unfortunately, my DSL service is on and offline repeately through the day, not only screwing up the VoIP usability, but also destroying our internet connection, causing all of our computers to pop on and offline every 2 or 3 minutes.

Very annoying, my wife reports. I can understand.

And again, this afternoon, out of the blue the Primus tech support guy calls me on my cellphone again to checkup on my account, and advise me that the problem has been resolved.

This is sort of unexpected, and again appreciated.

I return home tonight and change a few pieces of hardware, trying to resolve the connectivity issues. No improvement, I try changing to one of my spare DSL modems, thinking perhaps the (clearly used) one that my new DSL provider sent was pooched.

Still no improvement, our connection is still going on and offline.

Then I figure it out.... Seems I had removed one of the DSL line filters on our living room phone when I swapped the house to "Full VoIP" last. When I undid the changes, I forgot to put the filter back on.

The living room phone was playing havok with the DSL connection.

Ok, I feel incredibly stupid now. Since I put it back on, the connection is solid as could be.

Duh. Double Duh.

So, the VoIP is back, and the DSL is solid.

I'm going to be calling Primus tommorow and bitching about my first week of horrible VoIP service, and see if they will credit me for the VoIP service to date.

They'd better be willing to do so. If it hadn't been for the customer service rep who took an interest in my account and took it upon himself to follow up with me over the last few days, and expedite the repairs, I would have probably been boxing up their equipment tonight and returning it ASAP.

However, I'm going to give it another chance.. But we're at two strikes now.

Three strikes, and they're out.

VoIP Difficulties, CN Tower

2005-06-17T18:44:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a hectic 48 hours. The secret is out of the bag!

The anniversary trip went great, even after the last minute hectic changes. The weather mostly cooperated, and the sun even peeked out. Thankfully, the CN Tower (Where we went for dinner, at the 360 Revolving Restaurant) was not clouded in, so the view was fine.

I trust everyone understands why the weather was a concern.

It has been years since I've been to the CN Tower. Although it's a novelty for all the tourists (Much like Niagara Falls, which I've been to countless times as well) it's not a yearly thing for us as it's only a 20 to 30 minute drive from our house, and we've both been there before.

For that matter, it's probably been at least 6 years since I was there last.

I only vaguely remember going to the restaurant many, many years before that.

However, it was a novel place for dinner, and the level of class there was certainly befitting of an anniversary dinner.

The service was excellent, and the food was great as well. The deserts were decadent, and when they heard that we were attending for our anniversary, they provided an extra dessert on top of the already sizable slices of cheesecake that came with our dinner entres.

I was so incredibly stuffed by the end of dinner, but it was so good that it was tough to stop.

The price, well.... When you dine in high class at 1151 Feet above the skyline of an international city, you don't expect it to come cheap.

Overall, it wasn't bad, but one expects a large bill. The bonus is that the elevation to the upper levels of the tower, which would normally have cost us about $40 or so for the two of us, was complimentary with the dinner.

That left the dinner costing about $100. You do the math. ;-)

It was a nice change from the norm though, although the view seemed strangely familliar, me being a Student Pilot and all.

The 360 Restaurant revolves a full turn once every 71 minutes, and it was a neat experience, albeit somewhat disorienting when one is standing on the inner-ring of the restaurant that does *not* rotate.

I have pictures, but will have to wait untill I sort out some issues with my new ISP's FTP space before I can post them.

On another note, the VoIP service has been hit and miss. I don't entirely blame it on my VoIP carrier, though....

Some time ago I called to change ISP's, and the switch didn't go as "seamless" as I had hoped. Seems my old ISP was hogging the DSL service, and wouldn't give it up to the new one. The two tussled, I guess, and my service suffered.

I was somehow stuck in limbo between two DSL carriers - something I didn't think was physically possible, but apparently is.

Two nights ago, the service was virtually unusable, although still connected. As a result, the VoIP service was virtually unusable along with it - breaking up, dropping calls, and being just generally obnoxious.

I "unwired" the house from the VoIP service, and transferred all of our phones except one cordless back to the POTS line. I also called my old DSL carrier and firmly instructed them to expedite their service termination so that I could rid myself of these problems.

It was frustrating, their service has definately gone downhill over the last 3 months, DSL wise at least. That, and the routine 20 to 40 minute waits to speak to someone at customer service or tech support was becoming more and more frustrating.

So, yesterday evening, the service seemed to terminate...and thankfully my new DSL carrier seemed to immediately takeover with absolutely no disruption of service!

Awesome...that's what I had hoped for.

I updated my login information in my router to enable the new ISP, and away it went. My internet QOS immediately improved.

Overnight, it seemed to get more "solid", presumably as my old carrier relegated the last of their hold on the service, and the new one firmed up the connection.

And today, the service is much improved versus my old carrier.

And best of all, that means that the VoIP service is now steady on it's feet again, and functioning well. I changed the wiring once again this evening to once again provide VoIP throught the house instead of the POTS service.

My wife made about a 25 minute phone call, and it was steady as a rock.

That's a good thing, as she was less then impressed the last few evenings, and made that much be known.

Hopefully the VoIP can redeem itself now in her eyes, providing it continues to work solidly. With my new ISP being Bell Canada, I'm sure that reliability will be excellent, so the VoIP should benefit.

Life, otherwise, is hectic....so many things to do, so few days in the week.

I'm scheduled to fly again tommorow morning, so that should help take the edge off a hectic week.

Hopefully the weather cooperates. It didn't Wednesday, when I was last scheduled..

Hair pulling!

2005-06-15T21:49:00.000-05:00

The anniversary plans I had originally scheduled for Friday got unceremoniously swapped to tommorow due to weather considerations.

Suffice to say that where we are going, weather is a concern. Having it rain on the day of would be bad. Pictures to explain situation later, secret is still not completely out of the bag. :-)

Unfortunately that left me hunting desperately for alternate babysitting arrangements this evening. After about an hour calling around, those plans were finally sorted out. Whew.

Why do celebratory events always have to be so stressfull to arrange?

Hot 'N Sticky..

2005-06-14T21:26:00.000-05:00

Sheesh, when will this heatwave end? The central air has been running for over a week now, and fighting to stay ahead. 31 Degree days with the humidex in the 40's is getting tedious, especially when ones work vehicle is not A/C equipped.

Thankfully the storms rolling through tonight are supposed to usher in nicer (Cooler!) weather. I will wait to judge for my departure from the house tommorow morning.

Hopefully the weather holds, as I am scheduled to fly tommorow evening.

The VoIP is working nicely. Some minor quirks that my wife has noticed, but nothing that would really stop us from making the full switch. It is really great being able to pickup the phone and call anywhere in Canada or the USA knowing that the call is free.

I tried the "remote" feature today that allows me to access our VoIP service from any landline or cellphone. I dialed into the Toronto remote access number, input my voip and pin numbers, got a dialtone, and called Vancouver for free from my cellphone.

Heh.. I'm going to like this service.

If anyone reading my blog is considering signing up to the Primus VoIP service, let me know so I can "refer" you. I get $30 for the referral, you get $15 on your account for getting referred. It's a win-win situation.

Life, otherwise, goes on. We settled our contract with my employer, and I thankfully missed the strike-and-picket experience. Since we were voting for acceptance of the contract on Sunday, or to strike Monday morning, it was close. Our Toronto terminal actually voted the contract down. All the other terminals, mine included, voted for it, and outweighed them. Whew.

Thankfully the company offered what the union thought was fair, and it was all moot. Penion and benefits are better now. The $1.00/hr raise retroactive to March, as well as the $.49/year increase for the length of the contract was nice as well.

Apparently the Toronto terminal has a bunch of disgruntled employees, though....?

It's my fifth wedding anniversary on 2 days - Thursday June 16'th. My wife is expecting a ring. I won't say whether or not she's getting one here, as I have a sneaky suspicion she reads my blog entries while I'm at work.

I have a nice dinner planned however for Friday at a unique place...more about that after the fact as well, since it's going to be a bit of a surprise location wise, at least.

Since I have a Doctors appt in the morning, I'll probbaly just take the entire day off.

With any luck, it won't be 3 Trillion degrees by the end of the week.