QUOTE OF THE DAY
P. J. O’Rourke
>“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.”
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ROAD TRIP
Two more days and we’re off to one of the greatest cities on earth, Montreal. I need a break badly and I can’t think of a better long weekend than the cosmopolitan excitement Montreal offers.
We’re flying out Saturday morning by Air Canada and I burnt the extra Aeroplan miles to go executive class. The flight only lasts an hour but it’s still nice to be spoiled a little.
Staying at the Novotel on Rue De La Montagne puts us right down town within walking distance of great food and excellent sightseeing. Lunch will be at Winston’s on Crescent Street and Saturday night steak is on the menu at Queue De Cheval, an excellent resturant 2 minutes from the hotel. Sunday it’s off to St. Catherines St for some shopping followed by a Japanese dinner at Katsura.
We fly back Monday afternoon and I’m supposed to be on vacation all week but it looks like I’ll be stuck in meetings which will blow my chances of getting in 5 or 6 rounds of fall golf. That could change of course and the fingers are crossed.
BRAMPTON FOLK FESTIVAL TIMES 2
Earlier today, Jim Kloss of Whole Wheat Radio sent me a link to the Brampton Folk Festival. Clearly this is a hoax link, I mean with performers like “Dermot O’Dreary & Brendan Catheter” who are described as “Oily charmers for the ladies” and activities such as “Competitive Drinking” (with Hamish McTwattie), it has to be a joke - right? I lamented that this event was being held in Brampton England, not Brampton Ontario where I live. A quick Google search shows that we do have an honest to God folk festival and I’ve never heard of it. I’ll have to reserve June 18th 2005 to check out the 2005 edition.
ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO
SpaceShipOne completed the first of two flights necessary to win the Ansari X prize earlier today. Despite some anxious moments when the craft executed 40 barrel rolls, the craft successfully reached an altitude of 67 miles and landed without mishap. They have to do the same within 2 weeks to claim the prize. CNN story
RFID
Spent all day in a seminar on RFID which stands for Radio Frequency IDentification. In my line of work, it’s the buzz word for the ,00s. With initatives by WalMart and the US Department of Defense, anyone involved in supply chain management is trying to cut through the buzz and determine just how quickly we have to jump into this fast changing technology without being caught on the “bleeding edge”.
Anyone who uses a proxmity card to gain entry at work, a Esso or Shell speedpass or drives an electronic toll road like the 407 in Toronto is already using RFID but retailers and government are starting to embrace this with a passion. Too many standards, too many suppliers and far too much hype make this a technology that will either bring a competitive edge to those who ride the wave correctly or financial disaster to those who make the wrong decisions.
I guess this is why I make the “big” money.
THE HITS KEEP COMING
Today has been the biggest hit day I’ve had to date. Over 100 so far and still counting. Since I haven’t said anything profound today (not like I ever do), I have to guess that it’s because of the end of the world posting from yesterday. Nothing like global destruction to bring out the search engines I guess.
It’s after 8 pm here in Toronto and the aliens haven’t shown up at the door so I imagine we’re safe.
UPDATE The US Geological Survey has issued an alert that Mount St. Helen’s is becoming increasingly more active with minor earthquakes rumbling at a rate of 4 per minute. Perhaps I spoke to soon.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
David Letterman
>“USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population.”
JUST A REMINDER
Just a reminder that the destruction of the world is scheduled to begin tomorrow. See this previous post for details.
My tinfoil hat is ready.
GOOD TO KNOW
The excellent Tricks Of The Trade has some timely advice for IT professionals.
>If you work in a big infrastructure with tons of routers, servers and the rest, you can usually tell how the whole operation is running right from your own desk, since your computer will have the proper tools for monitoring. But management doesn’t always understand this — if there’s a problem, they may perceive you as just sitting around idly, even while you are saving the day.
>So, at the first sign of trouble, abandon your perfectly functioning computer, go down to the computer room / engine room / nuclear reactor, and continue your work down there. Most of the time the issue will solve itself, but people will assume that, by moving, you were actively engaging the problem and have a second set of mystical tools at your disposal in the event of an emergency.
I’ve actually found that scurrying around looking concerned does wonders to calm the users’ fears during an outage.
Back in the old days when we had a complicated, finicky IV Phase system, my assistant hung this sign on the door when we had a major problem
> Yes the system is down
> Yes we’re working on it
> No we don’t know what’s wrong
> No we don’t know who broke it
> Yes we will let you know when it’s fixed
Did wonders to cut down on the traffic and the stupid questions.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Georges Clemenceau
>“War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!
My little sister Susan turns 50 today. (sorry for telling the world)
We spoke on Saturday as she is half a world away in England.
Wishing you the best of days. Make sure Alan takes you somewhere nice!
SOMEONE’S GETTING CRANKY
Mount St. Helen’s in Washington state is sending out indications that it’s getting ready to blow again. Scientists monitoring seismic activity are reporting numerous earthquakes in the region and this is seen as a precursor to a major event.
Dozens of people died when the volcano last erupted in 1980. Official site.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Henry Kissinger
>“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”
FORUM UP AND RUNNING
In case anyone’s interested, I’ve installed a forum called “Get It Off Your Chest” that you can get to here.
Check it out and, if you want, you can even join.
AND THEN IT’S OFF TO THE HONEYMOON IN THE DOUBLE WIDE
Krispy Kreme, where arteries go to clog, is now offering wedding cakes made out of their donuts. Mouth watering details.
Would go just perfect with a minister who’s also an Elvis impersonator. Of course, what do you expect when you get your wedding planning done here:
SUNDAY’S PICTURE
(click to enlarge)
Taken at our old cottage, Misha eyes the Canada geese that loved floating just out of his reach.
ARE YOU GUILTY
YOU MIGHT BE AN IE USER, IF…
>1. If your email address is listed on your business cards as “www.joesmith@yahoo.com”, you might be an IE user.
>2. If you actually think you will get $50 for “punching the monkey.”
>3. When someone tells you to restart your computer and you turn the monitor off and back on, you just might be an IE user.
>4. If someone tells you to go to “www.whatever.com” so you go to Google and search for it, you are probably an IE user.
>5. If someone tells you you need a firewall and so you go to the store and buy Norton firewall in a box for $70, you might just possibly be an IE user.
>6. When you get a popup ad showing a Windows-like warning and you think it is a Windows warning box, you might be an IE user.
>7. If you web browser has 8 search bars and you don’t even know how they got there, you might be an IE user.
>8. If you get pop-up ads and you aren’t even using the Internet, you just might possibly be an IE user.
>9. If you have mysterious charges on your card because you received an email from “E-Bay” saying your account would be suspended if you didn’t update your credit card information by clicking “this link”, you must be an IE user.
>10. If, while reading this list, you are receiving the message “NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM will shut down in 60 seconds”, you might be an IE user.
Lifted from guru John Dvorak’s blog.
Of course, all you intelligent people are using Firefox right?
TROUBLE
Having some troubles with permissions with my host site. Bear with me
GREAT GOSSIP
The online version of The Sun, England’s version of the National Enquirer is claiming that Marlo Brando and Wally Cox were lovers.
Makes perfect sense to me.
CLOSE IS BETTER THAN NOTHING
Iraqi officials have now publicly acknowledged what has been rumored for a while. Next January’s “democratic” elections may not involve everyone. Vice President Barham Saleh told The Associated Press “Hypothetically, if you have a location in which the security situation is not conducive to holding elections … then you end up with the question, Shall we delay or hold the entire process hostage to that particular district? “.
Now that statement is open to interpretation but puppetmaster U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld left little doubt when he said “if insurgents prevent Iraqis from voting in some areas, a partial vote would be better than none at all.”
Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that, come election time, areas that do not support the American occupation will be labelled as in the grip of insurgency?
Update: Security of State Colin Powell spoke about the problem today.
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