Michael Holtstrom

iOS -- Things I Forget

2011-07-10T11:08:00.033-04:00

The App Icon of an iPad Application is 72x72 pixels.
Get all icon sizes here and advice here.

Remove the shine effect from the iPad App Icon:
Info.plist > Open As > Source Code

<key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>

<true/>

Run your App only in landscape mode:
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{ return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft); }

Remove the Status Bar
Info.plist > Open As > Source Code:

<key>UIStatusBarHidden</key>

<true/>

To add a background image to your application, do the following in your AppDelegate didFinishLaunching, where wall1.png is a 1024x760 vertical wallpaper, and mainView is your view controller.
self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"wall1.png"]];
self.mainView.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

Custom Fonts:
It seems you can only customize the font of your labels programatically. See Creating a UILabel programmatically for some sample code that you could drop in your viewDidLoad

Iterate (for loop) over a string array:
NSArray * words = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"one",@"two",@"three",nil];
for(NSString * str in words) {
NSLog(@"%@",str);
}

Static UIColor
...

Display Binary Contents Of A File

2011-05-20T11:10:00.000-04:00

Use the od command to dump a file to the console as binary (ascii-hex). This even works on the MAC. It's useful when you're having problems with control characters like line endings.

$ od -t x1 test1.sh
0000000    23 21 2f 62 69 6e 2f 6b 73 68 20 2d 65 70 75 0a
0000020    0a 65 63 68 6f 20 22 46 69 6e 69 73 68 65 64 21
0000040    22 0a 0a
0000043
$ od -t x1 test2.sh
0000000    23 21 2f 62 69 6e 2f 6b 73 68 20 2d 65 70 75 0d
0000020    0a 0d 0a 65 63 68 6f 20 22 46 69 6e 69 73 68 65
0000040    64 21 22 0d 0a
0000045

Getting Started With iOS

2011-05-20T10:08:00.003-04:00

If you're completely new to programming the iPhone/iPad, know nothing about iOS/xcode, and have never used a MAC, the following might be useful.

Development Platform
Probably the cheapest way to start developing is to buy a Mac Mini. It easily has enough power for xcode. I got mine from carbon computing (2.4GHz 2GB, 320GB, SuperDrive, AirPort, HDMI, GeForce 320M Video). It comes with a powercoard and an HDMI to DVI converter. You can plug in your existing DVI monitor and windows USB mouse/keyboard.

Of course, you probably can't live witout two monitors, so you'll need to additionally buy a Mini-DisplayPort to DVI converter. I got this from carbon computing for $40. You can get it from monoprice for $7, but I was in a hurry and don't fully trust knock-offs. I did however buy a usb switch from monoprice for $25 that lets me toggle my keyboard/mouse between the PC/MAC. My monitors have both DVI and VGA out, so I have the DVI cables running to the MAC and the VGA cables running to the PC. To swap the station, you just punch the usb-switch button and the swap buttons on the front of the monitors.

Setting up the MAC OS
Unboxing is easy. Plug it in and hit the power button on the back. It walks you through a friendly first-time-setup. Finder is the magnifing glass at the top-right of your screen. You can use it to search for applications by name, like "update" to find "Software Update". You'll want to run this a few times and update everything. Specifically your OS is probably too old for the latest xcode. Your mac came with some disks, but you don't need these. I also changed my desktop backround and customized the dock (the shortcut icons at the bottom of the screen). Just click and drag to remove them (a little dust-cloud icon appears). And drag from finder to the dock to add them.

Even if you're not using a windows keybard, the change in position of the control-command keys might drive you mad. You can get it to behave more like you're used to by downloading the latest version of doublecommand.

[double-click] DoubleCommand-1.6.9.pkg
Continue > Continue > Install > [password] OK > Close
Eject the installer
Finder "DoubleCommand" > System Preferences > DoubleCommand
[uncheck] Enter Key acts as Command Key
[check] Command Key acts as Control Key
[check] Control Key acts as Command Key
[check] PC sytle Home and End keys
Click activate button
Click system button (and provide password)
Close double command

Xcode
You need to download Xcode. It was free, but the latest version costs $5. If you're serious about development, you'll want to put stuff on the device which requires a $99/year subscription and gives you access to stuff like Xcode. So you might as well start out by enrolling in the Apple Developer Program. Then you download the latest Xcode (which is gigs, and takes a while). Note that Xcode 4 is considerably different than its predecessors, so if you buy any books, make sure they're the new enough. There are a bunch of tutorials and books out there. I'll probably end up posting some sample code here, but for now, I'll just give a list of resources that I found most helpful.

Absolutely Required Reading
iOS Technology Overview -- Cocoa Touch Layer
iOS Technology Overview -- Core Services Layer

Wikipedia on Objective-C
One thing that drove me crazy for a long time was the difference in function naming between C++ and Objective-C. I finally found a good explanation of this on wikipedia.

- (return_type)instanceMethod2WithParameter:(param1_type)param1_varName andOtherParameter:(param2_type)param2_varName;
Note that instanceMethod2WithParameter:andOtherParameter: demonstrates Objective-C's named parameter capability, for which there is no direct equivalent in C/C++.

The named parameter article goes on to explain that function name is actually interleaved with the arguments. In other languages like Ada, this lets you supply arguments in an arbitrary order. Not so with Objective-C. The only purpose for this is to make the code "more readable". So in the above, andOtherParameter is actually part of the function name. Very weird.

Mac OS X Developer Library

The Objective-C Programming Lanugage

iOS Developer Library

Other Good Stuff
Understanding iOS 4 Backgrounding and Delegate Messaging
This is absolutely essential to understanding your application's life cycle. Read this before you try writing anythign from scratch. When a text is guiding you through a sample, you're fine, but when you try to do something original, you'll die without this.

Basics (Note, I'm assuming you're using DoubleCommand, so I'm substituting CTRL for Command)
CTRL-Shift-3   = capture desktop as png
CTRL-Shift-4   = capture a cross-hair selected portion of the screen as png
CTRL-Shift-4 + Spacebar   = capture an application windows as png

No Junk Mail

2011-03-28T19:32:00.001-04:00

Here's what I discovered while hunting around for a No Junk Mail sign.

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) has a central registry to stop some unwanted addressed advertisements. It's not clear if you need to periodically renew your registration.
cornerstonewebmedia.com/cma/submit.asp

The Canadian Government has a national Do Not Call List to reduce telemarketer calls. Your registration will last for five years, after which you must re-submit your number.
www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/insnum-regnum-eng

The City of Ottawa has an Admail Reduciton By-Law that prohibits distribution of unaddressed advertising material. All you have to do is post this sign on your mailbox. You can buy it for $2.00 at any of the seven client service centres, such as 580 Terry Fox Drive which is open 8:30-5:00 monday-friday. It comes to $2.26 with tax, and you're required to sign and address a form that is witnessed by the city. The sticker itself has a white background, unlike the gif above.

They gave me a pamphlet that contains more information than the above URL. It says that Canada Post is exempt. It also says that the admail distributors local to Ottawa are Flyer Force (742-7782) and Sun Distribution (739-7200). If posting the sign doesn't work, you're supposed to contact the distributors. If that doesn't work, you're supposed to "call the City of Ottawa Call Centre at 580-2400 and identify, where possible, the name of the distributor or the type of material delivered".

How to feel about Egypt

2011-02-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

In response to the Ottawa Citizen "Do you really want revolutionary change you can believe in the Middle East, Mr. Obama?"

First, I don't know anything about Egypt, Islam, or war.

Second, I don't consider the Citizen article trustworthy because contemptuous statements like "He's so desperate" and "as their liberal puppet" are designed to make me feel a certain way, without providing reasons. I'd suggest that the wikipedia article on ElBaradei is far more believable.

Third, I don't accept the claim that revolution is bad, even if it involves the death of thousands of innocent people. Consider the Costa Rican Civil War for example. In any case, I haven't seen convincing evidence that current events in Egypt will reduce the joy value of the universe.

Fourth, even if I were convinced that there was a majority chance that events in Egypt would lead to disaster, I wouldn't agree that the U.S. or Canada should have supported Mubarak. That is after all, the only meaningful question for an average North American, since most of us won't participate any further than our next Federal vote.

Perhaps I misunderstand them, but this Citizen article and the many other arguments that are unhappy about events in Egypt all seem to say that things were better off when Mubarak kept his people quiet. While that may be true for me personally when you define "better off" as "the price of a big mac, etc.", I'm not very interested in it and am personally shocked by the implications.

Based solely on the fact that he was in power for 30 years, I assume that Mubarak was corrupt and was unwanted by many reasonable people.
Based on my understanding of Emergency law in Egypt, I assume that average Egyptians are denied rights that I consider basic and treated in ways that I would resist.

Therefore the argument that we were better off with Mubarak is the argument that Alice, Bob and I live in a maze together, and Alice routinely treats Bob in ways I consider reprehensible, but never in my presence, and every so often I'm asked to modify some switches in the maze to prevent Bob from defending himself from Alice based on the argument that I have never seen Bob outside of Alice's presence and if I don't help Alice suppress Bob, he might one day hurt me.

This, I am not willing to do.

Theatre Tickets and the NAC

2010-10-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

The NAC phoned to sell me theatre tickets. Normally I hate telephone solicitation, but the lady was nice and I'm convinced that ticket master is corrupt, so I thought I'd give it a try. I told her I'd talk it over with my wife and would call back next week. I'm a busy guy, so it was closer to a month later before I called back. In the mean time, they tried to call me maybe twenty more times (don't do that!), which I just ignored.

The thing is, that we don't appreciate most of the theatre that they put on at the NAC. It's just not our style. But they're partnering with the GCTC for Vimy, and you can trade in theatre tickets at cash value for NAC dance tickets (some of which are amazing).

Ticket Master
I went through the online Ticket Master process, and canceled out just before paying. Here's what would have happened.

Vimy (Nov 9 - Dec 5) GCTC (in the main Theatre)
Sat. Dec 4th, (all seats same price), $40.80 x 2 + $5.50 x 2 + $4.00 = $97.60

The Year of Magical Thinking (Jan 11-29) NAC (in the main Theatre)
Tue. Jan 25th, (centre orchestra, 4th row), $60.27 x 2 + $5.50 x 2 + $4.00 = $135.54

Wayne McGregor, Random Dance, Entity (only one day) NAC (in the main Theatre)
Tue. Feb 8th, (balcony, 1st row, orchestra was sold out), $43.17 x 2 + $5.50 x 2 + $4.00 = $101.34

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Orbo Novo (Mar 3-4) NAC (in the main Theatre)
Thu. Mar 3rd, (side orchestra, 3rd row), $46.28 x 2 + $5.50 x 2 + $4.00 = $107.56

NAC Theatre Package
I called back, Tuesday Oct.12th at 10pm and bought a 3pack (6tkts) over the phone with visa. They arrived in the mail on Friday Oct.15th, and I stopped by the NAC Saturday afternoon to swap the 3rd event (which we didn't want) for dance tickets. The tickets from the 3pack that we used for trade-in were Saint Carmen of the Main, $44.98 x 2 + $3.00 x 2 = $95.96. These where accepted for trade as a value of $95.96. Also, since we're now a subscriber, we get a discount on all subscription events of the season (i.e. the dance tickets). This seems to be 10% off most events. The NAC Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 9pm. The NAC may look closed, but the box office on the far side facing the river is open. Here's what happened.

Vimy (Sat. Dec 4th) GCTC (in the main Theatre, orchestra, D16/17)
$27.77 x 2 + $3.00 x 2 = $61.54 (saved $36.06)

The Year of Magical Thinking (Tue. Jan 25th) NAC (in the main Theatre, orchestra, D18/20)
$49.29 x 2 + $3.00 x 2 = $104.58 (saved $30.96)

Wayne McGregor, Random Dance, Entity (Tue. Feb 8th) NAC (in the main Theatre, balcony, B45/47)

$29.74 x 2 + $2.69 x 2 = $64.86 (saved $36.48)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Orbo Novo (Thu. Mar 3rd) NAC (in the main Theatre, orchestra, D49/51)
$37.05 x 2 + $2.69 x 2 = $79.48 (saved $28.08)

Result: Saved $131.58
Conclusion: Ticket Master is the enemy.

Another good way to save money that I haven't tried, is to buy Rush Seats. The NAC website says that last-minute 50% discounts on some NAC performances are available from 4:00pm to 6:00pm on the day of the show.

You can exchange your tickets (in person, by fax or by mail) up until the day before the show (with no service charge) for any NAC subscription event during the same season.

How To Lend On Kiva

2010-10-11T12:02:00.001-04:00

I like Kiva. Sarah-Jane Whittaker sent me a kiva gift certificate circa 2006 and I've been lending ever since. It's fun and it probably makes the world a better place. I added more of my own money and have recently been lending under the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I wonder though how to maximize the world's-a-better-place-ness of kiva interactions. Each time you lend, they by default ask for a donation to kiva. I always unselect this. I'm not convinced they need that kind of support from their lending base and it seems underhanded to have it selected by default.

Another thing you'll notice after lending on kiva is that your loans are always paid back. That's nice, but absurd. People default on loans, especially poor people on unstable countries. It must be that the field partner covers the defaults to maintain their high kiva rating.

If you think about it for a while, you'll have to conclude that kiva is not what it seems. David Roodman gives an excellent explanation of this. The reality is that you're not lending directly to some far-away entrepreneur. That would be inefficient and absurd. You are in fact supporting Kiva Field Partners aka Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).

So when you decide to lend on kiva, the crucial world's-a-better-place-ness question is not: Should I lend to Mohira Kholikova from Tajikistan or Nelly from Bolivia? The question is: Which Kiva Field Partner should I loan through? or Which Kiva Field Partner gives the best deal to the borrower/entrepreneur?

I searched through the Kiva Field Partners in Oct. 2010 looking for all that met the following criteria.
- Field Partner Risk Rating: at least a three stars.
- Portfolio Yield: no more than 35%
- Profitability (Return on Assets): no more than 2%
- Average Loan Size (% of Per Capita Income): no more than 200%

That may not be the best metric. I'm open to suggestions. It's hard to know. Low profitability might just mean bad management. High yield might just mean that borrowers cover a wide region with bad roads and therefore represent larger operating costs. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Here they are:

Armenia > Nor Horizon Universal Credit Organization Limited Liability Company
Nicaragua > Fundación Leon 2000
Guatemala > Asociación ASDIR
Ecuador > Banco D-MIRO S.A.
Ecuador > Cooperativa San Jose
Lebanon > Ameen s.a.l.
Mongolia > XacBank
Peru > Asociación Arariwa

Each of the field partner pages has a link on the right-sidebar to "See all fundraising loans from this field partner", so you can first pick a partner you trust, then a profile you like then lend. Have fun.

Sunk Cost

2010-10-06T21:00:00.007-04:00

I don't give up easily. Often this is costly.

We're probably the only household in Canada that has their VISA setup with Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) from a savings account.

On the one hand, I can't see why everyone doesn't do this. Being unconcerned about some nebulous superpower plotting my destruction via perfect knowledge of my purchasing patterns, I buy almost everything on VISA. It's convenient, insured, and allows me to track our spending patterns. The problem is that once a month you have to pay the damn thing. Wouldn't it be nice if it would just reach into your bank account and pay itself, thereby guaranteeing that you never pay a dime in interest? Well it can, and mine does. It's called Pre-Authorized Debit.

But if all your purchases are on VISA and it is going to pay itself monthly, then that's going to be a fairly large bill, so you'll have to have a fairly large pot of cash somewhere, and it's in your interest (pardon the pun) for that to be a savings account. Aye, there's the rub.

The fact is, that the only information a Bank needs to pluck money from your account is:

- Transit Number
- Institution Number
- Account Number

The rest, like your name and address, and the bank's name and address probably aren't necessary. And any security features built into the cheque are lost when sent by fax, so they're irrelevant. This means that knowledge of your account number is all that is necessary to steal your money. It's really only the paper trail that protects you.

Anyway, a couple of years ago after many faxes and phone calls and much suffering, I arm-twisted my bank into setting up PAD from a 3rd party savings account. This bank (that issued the visa) had advertised PAD on their website, and I had confirmed with them that this was possible, and in fact switched to them from my previous bank (who later claimed to be able to do the same thing) all for the purpose of setting up this "effortless" PAD system, so when they gave me the run-around while setting up the PAD I just bore down until they gave way.

Fast-forward to last month, for which my memory is more accurate, and I'll lay out for you the road of suffering and woe that is required to accomplish VISA Pre-Authorized Debit from a 3rd party financial institution's savings account. In this case, I already have PAD setup, but want to redirect it to a different account in the same organization for which it is currently successfully setup. You'd think that would make it easy.

Sept. 7th 2010 -- Search around on the bank's website for the PAD form. Notice that the fax number on the form itself and the fax number on the page that links to the form are different. Phone VISA. After ~10 min wait, get off-shore call centre. Asserts that it is the on-form fax number that is correct. Send fax.

Sept. 16th 2010 -- PAD came from the old account. Phone VISA. After ~10 min wait, get off-shore call centre. Ask why my fax was ignored. Am on and off hold several times. Total call length ~25mins. Tells me to call a different 1-800 number, which in fact turns out to be the same number I dialed to get him. I didn't realize this because it was spelt partly in letters on the back of my visa whereas he read it to me only in numbers. Unbelievable.

Sept. 16th 2010 -- Call right back. Another ~10min wait. Got someone useful this time. She asserts that the first guy was wrong. I should use the on-web fax number, not the on-form fax number.

Sept. 21st 2010 -- Got a phone message stating that the form could not be processed without a void cheque. But right on the form it says: "You must include a 'VOID' cheque for a Chequing Account or the top portion of your statement for a Savings Account." There's even a Chequing/Savings selection box on the form. Obviously a savings account cannot provide a void cheque. P.S. I did correctly fill out the form and did include the statement from the savings account. So I call them back. Another ~10min wait. Explain the situation. Am on and off hold for a long time. Guy asserts that they have the fax and it's no problem. It will be debited from the new account at next billing.

Sept. ~30th 2010 -- My faxed form arrives in the mail. Says it was rejected due to "non-receipt of void cheque".

Oct. 5th 2010 -- Call back regarding the letter, just to be sure it will be debited from the correct account. After the usual wait and long explanation, the guy confirms that it has not been updated and will still come from the old account. This directly contradicts the last guy. Great. What to do? He says, go to your local branch. They'll be able to process it "right before your eyes".

Oct. 6th 2010 -- Arrive at local branch. They have no idea what VISA expects them to do. They call someone and suggest that my 3rd party bank needs to provide a PAD form. It might contain some extra information (secret numbers). Fine. Drive back home. Call my savings-account bank. No such form exists. No secret numbers exist. There is a direct-deposit form, but it just has institution, transit and account numbers. Just like a cheque. Just like VISA's PAD form. Call VISA again. Have a long talk. No he can't see my fax, that goes to the "back office". No there is no way to call the "back office". I should go to my local branch. Back at the branch, they get on the phone again. After a long wait (~25min) she says that she talked to a supervisor and he promised to process the form. She'll re-fax it to him.

I hope it works.

P.S. It would have been a simple matter to photo-shop a fake cheque and fax it in. I really don't see what the big deal is. The fundamental problem is that the system is setup to prevent direct communication between the person who submits the form and the person who processes it.

Update: Oct. 14th 2010 -- Called VISA again to see if they had updated the account number. Nope. Got an on-shore call centre this time. Explained that I was in a branch on Oct. 6th and that they promised to fix it. Was put on hold for ~10min. She came back and said she talked to a manager and that it would definitely be fixed before the next auto-payment (in four days).

Update: Oct. 20th 2010 -- Success.

Buying Stuff

2010-10-04T21:47:00.011-04:00

If you look back over the last few years, you might notice some of your purchasing patterns, and you might notice that you're getting ripped off. That's certainly been the case with me. Here is some stuff I buy, why I think it's good, and where to get it for a good price.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer SPF 15
cetaphil.ca

Rexall/Pharma Plus -- doesn't have it in my neighbourhood
Shoppers Drug Mart -- rip off -- $16.49
well.ca -- $13.35
pharmacy.ca -- $12.99

I use this stuff after every shower. Without it, my skin is unhappy. It's hands-down the best moisturizer product I've ever used.

Oral-B Ultra Floss (mint, 50m)
oralb.com

Rexall/Pharma Plus -- doesn't have it in my neighbourhood
Shoppers Drug Mart -- rip off -- $4.99 (and it's often sold out)
well.ca -- $3.99
pharmacy.ca -- $3.79

Unlike any other floss, this will both fit between tight teeth and clean them well. They have a gimmick of marking on the floss where you should cut it, but at a too large size. Despite knowing this, I find myself cutting at the blue marks anyway. So I guess it's a successful gimmick.

What I would really like is to be able to buy just spools of re-fill floss and save on the overhead of the packaging. If anyone has a contact in a floss-factory, please hook me up.

Comparison:

Buying 3 cetaphil and 3 ultrafloss from pharmacy.ca (not bad)
Sub Total: $50.34
13% HST: $6.54
Delivery: $5.49
Total: $62.37

Buying 3 cetaphil and 3 ultrafloss from well.ca (the winner)
Sub-Total: $52.02
13% HST: $6.76
Shipping: $0.00
Total: $58.78

So, I'll be shopping at well.ca from now on.

P.S. It arrived today (Oct 7th). Two thumbs up. Here's the loot.

Follow-up (Oct 29th 2010)

I price-checked a list of things that I normally buy from the Rexall Pharma Plus in my neighbourhood. I had expected well.ca to be the winner for most non-massive (because of the free shipping) items, but Pharma Plus has the better price for many items. On Nov 5th, I swung by a Shoppers Drug Mart for more price checks. They are absolutely atrocious.

Strepsils, Honey & Lemon, 24 lozenges
well.ca $3.99
Pharma Plus $4.49
Shoppers $5.49

Ricola Cough Drop, Lemon Mint, 75 g
well.ca $3.59
Pharma Plus $3.99
Shoppers $4.49

Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion, 500 ml
well.ca $17.59
Pharma Plus $17.99
Shoppers $19.99

Cepacol, Citrus, Extra Strength, 18 lozenges
well.ca $3.59
Pharma Plus $3.99
Shoppers $4.49

Neutrogena Men Razor Defense Face Scrub, 123 ml

well.ca $10.75

Shoppers $11.99

Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray, Soothing Citrus, 177 ml

well.ca $10.25

Shoppers $11.99

Ozonol, 30g

well.ca $7.95

Shoppers $9.99

Head & Shoulders, Classic Clean, 2-in-1, 700 ml
well.ca $12.27
Pharma Plus $10.99
Shoppers $12.49

Gillette 3X Clear Gel Deodorant, Wild Rain, 85 g
well.ca $4.89
Pharma Plus $3.99

Colgate Total, Advance Health, Whitening, 170 ml
well.ca $5.75
Pharma Plus $5.29
Shoppers $5.99

Softsoap, Aloe Vera, Liquid Hand Soap Refill, 950 ml
well.ca $4.89
Pharma Plus $3.99
Shoppers $5.49

Jamieson, Vitamin C, Wild Blueberry, 500 mg, 120 Chewable Tablets
well.ca $9.15
Pharma Plus $7.99
Shoppers $8.99

Fleecy, Fresh Air, 80 Dryer Sheets
well.ca $8.19
Pharma Plus $6.99

So I guess the result is that you should shop at well.ca or Pharma Plus based on convenience, but avoid Shoppers Drug Mart like the plague.

I'm Vegetari-ish

2010-09-20T23:50:00.005-04:00

I love CBC Radio. I said it the other day, and I'll repeat it in print: In the ordered list of government services that I would give up, CBC outlives snowplowing the roads.

Here's something great: (link to CBC archive)
CBC Radio, Ideas (Aug.18th, Aug.25th, Sept.1)
Have Your Meat And Eat It To
By freelance broadcaster Jill Eisen

Food production, and how my food purchases are a vote is something that has increasingly interested me over the last couple of years. Don't get me wrong, I like eating meat, and I don't mind killing, but at torture, I think I draw the line. The fact is, that most of us are balefully ignorant about the effect we have on the world every time we make a purchase. I'm convinced that your daily vote-by-purchase has a much more profound effect then your vote at the Provincial and Federal level. And consequently, I'd like to know what my vote has been supporting.

I listened to Part1, and thought: "Very interesting. Well balanced. This is a tricky problem." Then I got into Part2 and thought: "Whoa, this PETA guy is pushing the limits." He's the sort that makes a strong statement as if it is undisputed fact, when it is actually opinion. Try to keep an open mind. The genius of the broadcast is that he's eventually followed by an ex-Vegan who although less evangelical, is also pushing limits in the opposite direction. Her conjecture that the health difference between hunter-gatherers and early sedentary societies is solely due to diet is absurd. Read some Guns Germs and Steel for a good look into that time period. Anyway, by the time I got to Part3 which isn't only well balanced, but also offers a host of positive and immediate solutions, I was so blow away the be broadcast that I started taking noted. The quotes below are paraphrased.

Let's start with some strong statements:

In Canada and in the United states, the legal protections for Dogs or Cats don't apply to Chickens or Pigs and other farm animals. Factory Farm animals are routinely mutilated without pain relief. Every moment of these animals lives are categorized by unmitigated misery.

It takes twenty calories into a pig or a chicken or a cow to get one one calorie back out in the form of meat. I would never go to my refrigerator and dump nineteen plates of pasta in the trash, but that's basically what you're doing when you consume animal products. As somebody that was trying to walk more lightly on the earth, thinking about consuming so gluttonously while other people were starving to death didn't sit well with me.

Now lets be reasonable. Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of "Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms." goes on to say some of the smartest things I've ever heard. She demonstrates that her farmland is not suitable for crop production, but is suitable for livestock grazing. It is consequently wasteful to not use the land for livestock, hence blowing away the 20:1 calorie ratio. P.S. She's a rancher who is a vegetarian who was a lawyer.

Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto." is even better. Here's some good stuff:

I think that sustainable animal protein has a place in really developing a truly sustainable agriculture.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, one third of all arable land is devoted to growing crops for animals.

A food chain in which the sunlight feeds the grasses, the grasses feed the ruminants and the ruminants feed us is actually a very sustainable way to grow food.

To argue for meat eating under these very narrow circumstances, from happy farms, where animals live good lives and their waste is managed properly and they're contributing to an ecosystem approach to growing food is to say you're going to eat a lot less meat.

Meat eating was a special occasion in most households for many years.

I would argue that paying a dollar or two is probably what an egg should cost.

It's very convenient to have a long, complex food-chain where you don't have to look at the whole system and you just see the nice shrink-wrapped packaged meat. People are very happy to not deal with all the issues involved.

When I published "The Omnivore's Delima", I heard from two kinds of people, some said "I read your book and I stopped eating meat", which I found very interesting because I researched the book and I didn't stop eating meat. I changed the kind of meat I eat, but then I heard from vegetarians who said "I read your book and I started eating meat again."

In these best of all possible farms, the animals, as the farmers like to say "have one bad day". And of course we all have that bad day. Death is just a fact of life.

If you standard is about ecological sustainability, you will find yourself coming out for a limited form of animal agriculture. If your framework is moral philosophy you can construct arguments that take you to a place where it's very hard to justify meat production.

Fred Kirschenmann says some great stuff:

We should be eating with respect.

One sixth of the world's population is going hungry in the modern food system. It's partly because we've decided that we're going to feed everybody in the world from raising corn and soy beans in Iowa. And it's not working.

How many humans can a healthy ecology sustain. We are part of a biological system. We have to come to terms with how many humans are appropriate for the carrying capacity of the planet. It's probably going to be more like three or four billion. Somewhere we have to figure out how to bring our population explosion under control. We know part of the answer. We know that if you empower women, it starts to move in that direction.

Now for the ex-Vegan. She's awesome, but pushes her claims a little too far:

People used to eat things like bacon and eggs for breakfast and diabetes was not an epidemic. Now they're eating highly processed cereal (which is just sugar) with low-fat milk (which is just more sugar), and we've got this whole crop of kids now who are going to die of blood sugar problems.

The thing about being a vegan, it's not just what you eat, it becomes what you are. It becomes this tightly held identity, and that makes it really hard to engage with new information that threatens that identity. The only thing that really made me give it up was when my health failed catastrophically.

Her story runs contrary to a whole host of studies claiming that a vegetarian diet is at least has healthy if not healthier than a meat eating diet.

The thing about people who undertake a vegetarian lifestyle, they do a whole bunch of things, any of which would absolutely create a healthier life, for instance they don't smoke as much as the rest of the population. So there is a whole range of lifestyle factors that are hard to separate out.

The best cohort studies on this compare Seventh Day Adventists to Mormons. The average Adventist lives seven years longer than the average American. They tend to be vegetarian, eat less donuts, eat less processed foods, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol and don't drink coffee. So it's not a fair comparison. But the Mormons also don't smoke or drink but do eat meat, and the Mormons live longer than the Adventists.

A rhyme I composed on the bike-ride home.

2010-09-10T08:23:00.000-04:00

I hate to stop unnecessarily.
And crossing paths I look most warily.
There are creatures in the night.
There are monsters in the way.

The wind is soft the light is foul.
My enemies are on the prowl.
But I am not afraid.
My countenance is grave.

My steps are quiet and precise.
I move among them like a knife.
Leaving silence in my wake.
And I am not afraid.

Spam I didn't mind.

2010-08-25T11:53:00.002-04:00

To realize the value of a sibling,
Ask an only child.

To realize the value of ten years,
Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize the value of four years,
Ask a graduate.

To realize the value of one year,
Ask a kid who just failed a final exam.

To realize the value of nine months,
Ask a mother who just gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize the value of one month,
Ask a mother who just gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week,
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one minute,
Ask a person who just missed the train.

To realize the value of one-second,
Ask a person who just avoided a twenty car pile-up.

To realize the value of a friend,
LOSE ONE.

Copyright Law and Bill C-32

2010-07-05T11:00:00.004-04:00

I was looking at Dan's Twitter and started following Michael Geist. Then I read his blog. I wanted to do something, and at first was disappointed that he didn't provide a form letter. I spent almost two hours on the following, and in the end was glad that I took the time to put my own concerns in my own words. I sent it by soft and hard copy to the contacts below.

I'll try to keep this succinct. I'm concerned about Bill C-32. Obviously the world of 2010 is very different from previous decades with respect to the production, transmission and consumption of information and media. Obviously copyright reform is required. I am a software developer. I have a vested interest in copyright. I vote.

I support many aspects of Bill C-32, but the DRM section is simply ridiculous. The issue is that if a producer has shipped some media protected by a "digital lock", then removing that "digital lock" or building a device that can remove that "digital lock" would be a crime. As has been pointed out by many others before me, this idea is fundamentally flawed.

1. Bill C-32 is intentionally vague about the definition of a "digital lock". Even if the lock is simple, so long as it is there, it would be illegal to break it. Furthermore, devices that can break it would be illegal. But these devices are just algorithms, which a person could perform by hand. There was a time that MD5 was considered a cryptographically secure hash algorithm. Today it can be defeated by paper and pencil. My point is that smart humans are devices capable of defeating "digital locks". The law would make smart humans illegal.

2. It is impossible to prevent the reproduction of media with a "digital lock". Most media enters a person through their ears or eyes. By putting a light recording device in front of the eyes and a sound recording device beside the ears, any media can be copied. This example is extreme, but the idea of copying the media after the controlling device has formatted it for output (i.e. at the audio/video-out layer) has been used for a long time.

3. The above two points demonstrate that the digital-lock-as-law idea is non-functional. It should matter what people do with media, not how they do it. If I store a copy of some media in a box in my back-yard to protect against the risk of loss in case my house burns down, that should be okay, no matter how I made the copy. If I start copying and selling someone else's intellectual property, that should be a crime, no matter how I made the copy. I think that much is obvious to everyone.

4. Information and technology moves faster than all of us. Look at iTunes. Look at Google. They are obviously successful. Their focal point is obviously not DRM. Those companies who have made DRM their flag-ship are dinosaurs. Don't tie our country, our citizens, our economy to their sinking ship. We need copyright reform, not copyright imprisonment.

I don't require a reply. I'm just stating my point of view.
<my address, occupation, signature>

Find your MP
Mine is Paul Dewar:
Dewar.P(at)parl.gc.ca
Paul Dewar c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.

The Prime Minister:
Used this instead of email.
Stephen Harper c/o Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, K1A 0A2.

Tony Clement, the Minister of Industry:
minister.industry(at)ic.gc.ca
Tony Clement c/o Office of the Minister of Industry, 235 Queen Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H5.

James Moore, the Minister of Canadian Heritage:
moorej(at)parl.gc.ca
James Moore c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.

Michael Chong, the Chair of the House of Commons Industry Committee:
Chong.M(at)parl.gc.ca
Michael Chong c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff:
Ignatieff.M(at)parl.gc.ca
Michael Ignatieff c/o Liberal Party of Canada, 81 Metcalfe Street, Suite 400, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6M8.

NDP Leader Jack Layton:
LaytoJ(at)parl.gc.ca
Jack Layton c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.

Canadian Heritage's Copyright Policy Branch:
Used this instead of email.
Department of Canadian Heritage, Copyright Policy Branch, 275 Slater Street, 7th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0M5.

Industry Canada's Intellectual Property Policy Directorate:
copyright-droitdauteur(at)ic.gc.ca
(couldn't find a hard-copy address)

Wine I Like

2010-04-21T20:01:00.005-04:00

Two Tone Farm Cabernet Sauvignon

Chat-en-Oeuf

Funky Llama Shriaz

An Interesting Point Of View

2010-04-13T11:05:00.003-04:00

NathanBurgoine retweeted fj who tweeted about Selene Luna who reposted Lady Bunny's FaceBook, “YOU WANT TO GET MAD?” (Author unknown).

Here it is:

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad!

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted.

You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed..

You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.

You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans… oh hell no.

AND NOW YOU’RE MAD!

What to do when your phone stops working.

2010-03-24T14:51:00.005-04:00

Luckily there are two hand-sets. Swap batteries and the broken handset starts working. So the battery is dead. What now?

Phone says: vtech DECT 6.0
Google finds: phone, picture, model: LS6115-2
And sidebar shows: NiMH replacement battery, model: 89-1337-00 (BT 28443), $19.99

But the obvious route is not usually the best.
www.alexanderbattery.com
technical@alexanderbattery.com
Answer: Unfortunately we do not carry this battery in stock. We can order an equivalent. Our part number is 70AAAH2BMJ. Price is $14.97/ea. Delivery would be about 1-2 weeks.

These (US) sites show a sample of the competition:
www.batteriesdirect.com
www.batterymart.com
www.batterydepot.com

Ten seconds research convinces me that phone batteries last ~1year.

So, I'll take two from alexanderbattery. Their price is decent, Canadian, and I don't have to deal with any hassle. I just reply: "Great. Please order two for pickup. Thanks." and when they arrive, I get notified, and I drop by to pay and pick them up. Easy.

Fail

Placed order March 24, arrived March 31, picked them up April 1, installed them April 5. They work fine, but are slightly shorter and wider and consequently don't fit in the phone, so now they're duct-taped to the back of the phone, which sucks.

Next time, I'll obey the manufacturer.

Update (Oct. 10th, 2010)

I've been getting tired of the duct-taped phones. The problem is that this (from above) is a US-only website, and for the life of me, I couldn't find a Canadian distributor. I had to use their contact-us link and ask them. Anyway, here it is:

vtechcanada.com > phone products > shop by series > ls series > LS6115 > Replacement battery : 891337

$16.99 * 2 + $12.90 shipping + $6.10 HST = $52.98

Got Them

St. Lucia (February 2010)

2010-03-02T21:39:00.005-05:00

I wanted to go to Costa Rica for a week in February, but didn't try to book the flights until January at which point they looked too expensive. Instead, we decided to book the time off work (in advance) and book a destination at the last minute. I watched flight prices for the week prior to our vacation, and they did drop considerably as the date neared, so everything looked okay. But on the Tuesday before our Saturday vacation, prices "for everything" were still too high. There were some cheap canned flight/resort deals, but when it came down to it, that's not what either of us wanted. We ended up paying big money for a Monday-Monday (instead of Saturday-Saturday) departing from Montréal (instead of Ottawa). The flights came with a week an inland hotel, and I was just going to accept that, but Amanda (bless her) sent out a hundred emails on Saturday morning (while I was coding evilgoblin.com) and we got a spot at the Oasis Marigot -- five nights in a sea-side cottage and two nights on a sail boat. Perfect. (here's a map of our trip)

I stayed up until 3am Saturday finishing phase one of evilgobin cleanup (take the working code of ver4 and re-architect it so that it's good enough to build on), and Sunday I cleaned the house and packed. We left the house at 3pm, drove to Montréal airport, checked in at aloft hotel (which included parking the car for the week), and had dinner at St. Hubert's (a short drive away, but without directions we wandered though Dorval for a long time). Back at the hotel we watched figure skating Olympics, saw (not live) the first Canadian at-home gold medal and had a great night. Next morning, Amanda "lost" her wallet (actually it was on the night-stand beside the phone) which caused some unpacking and re-packing and general unhappiness. But the juice/croissant/fruit breakfast provided by the hotel put us back in good spirits.

The shuttle got us to the airport in no time. We flew Air Canada 1810 YUL-UVF departing 9:05am. Self check-in was easy except for figuring out how to put the stickers on the bags, and there was a ~10 minute line up at the baggage drop-off. Security had almost no line, but they took more time than usual looking at the bags in the x-ray machine, and my boots and rings set off the metal detectors so I got the "detailed" screening. Finally on the plane, our seats were separated by several rows, but the ride was good. There was almost no waiting on-plane before take-off or after landing. We deplaned via stairs, but it was much quicker than boarding because we were able to use both the front and rear exits. There was ~15min wait at customs and we were met at the exit by a taxi (8-person mini-van) driver named Ed who had been booked for us by the Oasis Marigot. He was really great. The drive took about an hour, but he showed us on a map where we were going and talked the whole way about what we were seeing and answered all our questions about St. Lucia. It cost $70us but we gave him $80.

The Oasis had suggested a taxi rather than a rental because "it's hard to find" but I think we could have done it ourselves with a decent map. That said, I really appreciated Ed's commentary and avoiding the stress of driving on the left after a long flight, so no regrets. At the end of the road we were (eventually) met by the Oasis' water taxi that took us and our luggage across the bay and were shown to our room (which was fantastic). To get up the hill side they have a trolley which is a great idea considering our luggage. I asked, and was told that both the trolley and the no-road-access are not common in St. Lucia.

There is some shared space (with a pool) outside our room (ocean cottage four aka Large Floor Plan 4) where we met Yan and Dean from Kingston Ontario (they'd arrived the previous day). They advised us that the restaurant at the bottom of the hill (Doolittle's) had a special on: "Lady with a flower in her hair accompanied by a gentleman gets her meal for free". We were starved so we ditched our stuff, picked a flower and made our way down, but the kitchen wouldn't open for another hour. We had drinks while we waited and I talked the bartender into fast-tracking us some chicken fingers from the kitchen. He was great. He brought me a second bottle of beer (Piton) without asking and didn't charge us for it or for the chicken fingers. Dinner was fairly good but it took a very long time and we were both exhausted after the walk back to our cottage. We slept almost twelve hours.

Next morning was another beautiful day. I went to the office to check-in. The lady there (Nahdjla) was great, she set me up with a car rental and talked them down to $75us from $85us. She also gave me the lay of the land and confirmed our boat pickup/drop-off. She was really good at summarizing at the end of a booking phone call so that it was obvious what both parties had agreed to. Afterwards, I picked up Amanda and we headed down to the public ferry and bought two 4day passes. On the other side (which has road access) we had lunch at a bakery on the shore (again expensive for average quality food). Afterwards we spent $200ec at the grocery store and took the loot back to our flat. It has a nice little kitchen (actually bigger than our kitchen back home) well stocked with pots, cutlery, etc, but lacking in some critical respects: salt, pepper, matches (to light the gas range). Also the propane tank (under the sink) had a safety switch in the off position. So it took some figuring. We scored matches from the neighbors and used the toaster to light them.

I cannot stress enough how beautiful this bay is.

Anyway, after stowing the groceries we went down to the beach. It's small but pleasant enough. The guy in charge of the chairs (which are free for tenants) said: "Your lady told me that she likes the ganga". I replied: "Oh. No thanks. We don't need that." To which he countered: "No? You don't need no cocaine?". I think in the remainder of the trip we were offered marijuana five or six more times and cocaine a second time. People in St. Lucia are forward but not too pushy and are easily dealt with if you are polite but firm.

After setting up Amanda with a beach chair, I snorkeled around the little swimming area for a while (which was relatively barren and polluted) and eventually found lots of fish, anemones and urchin type things around a little rock jetty that marked the left boundary of the swimming area. That was neat and I spent a long time staring at them. Afterwards we retired back to our cabin, but on the way I checked at the office to see if it is permitted to climb the hill. It turns out that the land behind the Oasis Marigot is a nature preserve and there is a trail to the summit. So I changed clothes, grabbed my camera and set off.

I was surprised to discover that the Oasis is enclosed in a razor-wire fence. I don't know if that keeps out animals or criminals. There are two little gates that you though. During the day they are left ajar. I assume they're shut in the evening. They can only be opened from the inside, so don't stay out past dark! The trail was a good climb (and pleasantly deserted) but there wasn't much to see. I did find a tiny bird's nest and on the way down ventured off the track several meters and found a giant caterpillar (maybe 11cm long, 2cm thick). The view from the top was fairly spectacular, but not really much better than from our cottage. And there were millions of tiny insects (which may or may not bite) flowing past me on the prevailing winds, so I didn't stick around for long.

At the grocery store, I had picked up a few bottles of Piton (their local lager, quite good) and a bottle of "Guinness Foreign Extra" which sadly tastes like a cross between real Guinness and tobacco juice. Yuck. Amanda made fruit, cheese, shredded cucumber and garlic-butter-pasta for dinner, then we played a game of scrabble which neither of us could finish because we played our words so densely.

Next morning we had muesli for breakfast and footed our gear over to the parking lot for our 9am meet with Jeanine from Avis. She arrived after a few minutes wait (early, I'm fairly sure) and I filled out our the rental agreement on the trunk of the car. With insurance, etc. it came to ~$100us/day (as promised), was a Nissan automatic, was shockingly scratched and dented, and had a big red sticker on the inside reminding you to drive on the left and to put it in 2nd when going down steep hills. Along with the rental, you must purchase a driver's permit, but she didn't have it with her. We arranged for it to be left at a nearby hotel. A driver was coming to pick her up and he'd have it with him.

So with that settled, we embarked on our crazy adventure. The driving is tricky. Its on the left, narrow, steep, windy and most intersections aren't posted. We went the wrong way that the first turn and were advised by an old man to turn around and "Go to the shanty, turn left, then at the other shanty, turn right". We drove (through much bedlam) to Anse Le Raye, Canaries, and on to Soufrière where people on the very narrow downtown streets continually offered directions (presumably wanting a dollar). By following other touristy cars we found ourselves on the way out of town and at the "Drive-in Volcano". It was interesting to see but was definitely a tourist trap. It was very crowded and we felt thoroughly corralled.

We got directions from two different staff at the Volcano (back through town) to the Diamond Waterfall, but when we arrived, it was thick with cruise boat tourists -- literally an infinite line of people standing three abreast. The ticket lady said they'd be all gone in a few hours so we drove back through town, parked at the waterfront and walked past "local's territory" to the beach (which was rocky and strewn with garbage). We persevered around the point and were rewarded with a great view of The Pitons and proper beach (although still quite rocky). After relaxing for a while we decided to head back to search for ice cream. I stopped at the car and re-applied sun-screen (having already burnt the tops of my feet). We picked up supplies at a local grocery store but no ice cream (because they only sold large tubs). Back at the Diamond Waterfall we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. It's definitely worth the visit when the crowds aren't there. We took our time wandering the paths and just sat around several times.

The drive home was relatively uneventful. We stopped at a few road-side lookouts. Back in Marigot we again took a wrong turn and had to be advised by a local: "Hey Papa, wrong way!" Before the long climb back to our cottage we took a swim at the beach and I started stared some more at the fish clustered around the rocks. Then back at our cottage we took a short dip in the pool to wash off the salt. After a rest we cleaned up than went to Chateau Mygo for dinner. It was characteristically expensive and took ~2.5 hours but was really superb. Amanda had scallops and I Had fried fish. That doesn't sound too exciting but let me assure you it was excellent.

I've forgotten to mention that each of us had picked up a variety of bug bites, mostly around the feet and ankles. So before dinner and again before bed, we started putting on DEET, and that seemed to significantly reduce the problem. There's nothing like scratching mosquito bites on sun burnt feet.

Next morning (Thursday 18th) we had muesli again and it was another beautiful day. But quelle disaster, I'd lost the car keys. I'm normally a very careful person and this sort of thing doesn't happen to me. I double searched the room, checked the path to the car and back and decided they must have been in my shorts pocket when I went swimming, and were irrevocably lost in the sea. I asked around but no one had found any keys, so I got Nahdjla to phone Avis for me and ask for another pair. They said that the spare keys were in another facility and they'd find them and call back with a quote (for delivery cost). So I agreed to check back with her later and fetched Amanda from the house so I could snorkel for the keys. Unbelievably, I swam right to them. They were beside an urchin beneath a buoy that I had been looking at the other day. Hooray! This un-ruined my day. I ran back to advise Nahdjla.

Amanda and I had egg salad sandwiches for lunch before driving to Castries. The drive north is much easier than the drive south. The roads are wider, less windy, less steep, less fast. But Castries is a city and there were three huge cruise ships in the harbour. After some sweating and swearing we found a multi-level car park and walked around the markets. After driving, I was in no mood for shopping, but I did my best not to grouch on Amanda's parade. Seeing my eminent collapse, she stopped us at a grocery store and scored me some Snapple and two bananas. Then we drove on to Rodney Bay and went swimming at their beach. It's nice but not as good as Varadero or Manual Antonio for that matter.

After our swim we walked the length of the beach and back and got a look at the free-with-the-flights hotel: very depressing. I much prefer Marigot Bay. On the way home we had to punch through some rush-hour traffic, but got back to the Oasis in time to watch the last light fade from the horizon. We had a quick swim in the pool, then Amanda cooked and amazing meal: carrots, orca, garlic potatoes, fried fish. But she had a stomach ache, so I ate alone.

There is a lot I love about Marigot Bay, but it has its faults. There are mosquitoes. Although I never saw them I had ten or twelve nasty bites to remember them by. There is hot water but the water pressure (both hot and cold) is bad. When you run the tap or flush the toilet or take a shower it comes in fits and bursts as though the pump is drawing air. The birds are pretty but there is a lot of forest noise all night and the walkway lights shine into your room so that it's never dark enough for proper sleeping. The bed is large but is hard and you can feel the springs and despite its hardness passes all your partner's slightest movements to you as little earthquakes, almost as efficiently as a waterbed. Also, I hate the pillows.

Anyway, for whatever reason (I blame the pillows), I woke up mid week with a stiff neck. And Thursday night it got so much worse that I couldn't sleep. Near morning I took some Advil and switched to a towel for a pillow and the situation improved but I was largely incapacitated until noon.

After lunch we drove out to Barre de L'Isle, which is an Inland hike along a ridge and up a mountain. The ridge was beautiful and breezy and the mountain (steep hill) was a very difficult climb but a great adventure. The views were nice but not spectacular. The value was in the journey.

Back home after a leisurely dip in the pool, Amanda made dinner and we packed for the boat. We read some of "The Last Chronicle of Barset" together (Amanda caught up to me the previous night), and went to bed. I slept with a towel for a pillow again which helped but next morning my next was still quite stiff.

Saturday was another beautiful day. I met Avis at 9:30am to return the car. They were on time and the process was easy. I stopped at the bank to pickup some cash and luckily they were open. Unluckily, the only way to get cash (I have TD debit and visa) is as a cash advance on a visa (which collects interest immediately) plus a bank fee of $20ec. Hotels and restaurants take visa but everyone else (taxi, park admission, ferry, grocery store) requires cash (us or ec). So after waiting forever in line, getting the bad news, trying (rejected) my debit card in the ABM, waiting again forever in line trying (rejected) my visa in the ABM (fee is only $5ec if you use the ABM), I eventually got $200ec form the bank teller (after handing over Visa, Driver's License, foreign address, local address, and signing ~nine times).

In the mean time, Amanda's attempts to email the Girl Guides were frustrated by repeated IE crashes. We were both late so she brought down all the luggage all by herself (therefore super pissed). But finally we were on the boat and under sail to Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay.

The journey by boat is very different and much better then the journey by car. Our skipper "Mike" (born and raised in Marigot Bay) anchored near Pigeon Island and motored us in (via little rubber dingy) and we agreed to meet at 3pm. We paid entrance (it's a national park), used the washroom, had an excellent lunch (Roti) and climbed the hill, which has an unbelievably great view. Then motored back to the boat, went for a swim and sailed back to Marigot Bay.

We were both pretty burnt but not yet incapacitated (I actually bummed some sunscreen from a Brit on Pigeon Island beach). Three things we were short on: Cash, Sunscreen, Water. On the sail home we saw a pirate ship "The Unicorn", a big turtle, and the green flash as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Mike dropped us off at the Chateau Mygo and arranged to meet us in the morning. We had drinks and dinner and Amanda read aloud from "The Last Chronicle of Barset". She's the best.

Later in the evening we met a great couple from Lunenburg who run a bed and breakfast there. We got the ferry to take us back to our boat (a distance of maybe 20m) for $10ec. We pretty much went straight to bed.

Next morning Skipper Mike was very drunk. I didn't notice at first (when he boated us to shore where we bough two Pain aux Chocolat and 4.5L of water and a baguette). But it was obvious to both of us, and he mentioned it as he boated us to the Oasis side. We agreed to met him at 10am (so that he could sleep it off) and Amanda went to the office to use the internet (and finish off the Girl Guide emails).

10am came and went with no skipper. I found him passed out and snoring on one of the lounge chairs on the beach. I spoke to him but he didn't wake. I spoke and nudged him several times, and finally he came-to. Eventually we were under sail (downwind) to Soufrière. He did most of the steering asleep, which is to say lounging in the back of the boat until the sails made a lot of noise at which signal he would nudge the wheel with his feet. But he did keep us on course and it was a beautiful day.

We went snorkeling near Jade Mountain (~$1500/night) north of Soufrière and saw lots of neat ***fish and motored in to Soufrière, tied up at the pier and walked to the Hummingbird for a late lunch. We also bought take-away sandwiches for dinner. They were characteristically slow and had trouble with the visa lines (had to take an imprint). So we didn't get back to the boat until ~5pm. We motored back to Marigot Bay (although I think we could have made just as good time sailing). The sun set as we went and the stars were out by our journey's end. It was very beautiful. Mike left us on the boat, and I re-packed our gear. Before bed we played a game of scrabble and read aloud. I slept with a proper pillow and had my first restful sleep all week.

In the morning, Mike (sober) boated us to shore and we bought water and two chocolate twists and two Pain aux Chocolat from the bakery and relaxed on the beach. Amanda read aloud for most of the morning. It was another beautiful day. I went on an adventure down the rocky shore of the bay until I found a large rock outcrop which I climbed. Then back at the beach we went for a swim and met a nice couple from New York with whom we shared a cab to the airport (organized by Nahdjla). At the top of the hill out of the bay we stopped for ice cream. At the airport, I remembered my customs form just before we checked our bags (which was lucky because it was in one of the bags). Past security we bought a delicious lunch and were soon on the plane. All US flights had to do a second security screening but since our was a direct to Montréal, we just waked though.

There was considerable turbulence on the flight home, but I like that. The Montréal airport was smooth and efficient with short lines. We were pretty exhausted and Amanda (bless her) drove us the two hours home to Ottawa. To bed after midnight, and straight to work in the morning. Ouch.

St. Lucia is a great country. I had a great time. But for inland adventures, I think I prefer Costa Rica. However I would like to meet a skipper I could live with and go on a Bahamas sailing trip for a few weeks or a month where all nights and most meals are spent on the boat.

I didn't get underwater photos, but here's some of the fish I think we saw.

Flights From Ottawa (YOW)

2010-01-31T16:45:00.012-05:00

Conclusion: Last minute sucks. Book in advance.

The Long Story

I've always wondered why you can't just go to the Ottawa airport's website and ask: "What are all the locations that fly direct from here?". I want to know this because most of the time I'm flying to escape winter and a lay-over in Chicago delayed by a snowstorm can really rain (or sleet) on my parade.

Andy says that he's seen flights from Ottawa to Cuba (Varadero or Havana) for as low as $299 (including tax) via Sunwing or AirTransat, and that at last minute the prices get better and better. James says that WestJet Vacations also flies to Cuba, but the flights aren't on their website. You have to call them to get the prices. When he booked, they had by far the best for Ottawa to Varadero.

Here's a list of direct flights from Ottawa that I got from www.ifly.com. Note that "Non-Stop" means that you fly from A to B without landing whereas "Direct" means that you fly from A to B but may stop at C to pickup more passengers before arriving at B. You don't have to deplane, but there may still be a connection.

# Boston Logan (BOS)
# Calgary (YYC)
# Cancun (CUN)
# Fort Lauderdale Hollywood (FLL)
# Halifax (YHZ)
# Memphis (MEM)
# Omaha Eppley Airfield (OMA)
# Philadelphia (PHL)
# Quebec Jean Lesage (YQB)
# Regina (YQR)
# Saskatoon (YXE)
# Vancouver (YVR)
# Winnipeg (YWG)

Here's a list of international flights from Ottawa that I got from www.flylowcostairlines.org. For some of them, I've also provided the www.expedia.ca price for a February 13-20 one-person return flight from YOW booked on Jan 13 2010, with one stop unless noted.

# Paris CDG
# London LGW
# Philipsburg SXM $1,287 (7hr)
# Freeport FPO $805 (20hr) (2+ stops)
# Nassau NAS $934 (6hr)
# Bridgetown BGI $1,114 (8hr)
# Puerto Plata POP $1,505 (20hr) (2+ stops)
# Punta Cana PUJ $1,010 (4hr)
# Montego Bay MBJ $992 (8hr)
# St. Lucia UVF $1,957 (8hr)
# Providenciales PLS $1,264 (7hr)
# Cancun CUN $897 (5hr)
# Cozumel CZM $1,354 (7hr)
# Mazatlan MZT $783 (22hr) (2+ stops)
# Puerto Vallarta PVR $1,316 (13hr)
# San Jose Del Cabo SJD $1,011 (10hr)
# Zihuatanejo ZIH $1,213 (22hr) (2+ stops)

I really like Costa Rica. I've been there once and we flew from Toronto to Liberia with a stop (change planes) in Miami. We booked ~2 months in advance. The flight cost $790.69 return per person, with 7hr 40min duration. The main airport in Costa Rica is SJO in San Jose, and unless you're exploring the western part of the country, it's the logical choice.

Here's a list of carriers that go from YOW to SJO.

# Air Canada
# American Airlines
# United
# LACSA
# Continental
# US Airways
# Delta
# NWA

I've booked flights through www.expedia.ca several times and I've always wondered what cut they are taking. So, I looked up some flights on the www.continental.com website and sure enough they looked cheaper, but once you go through the hassle of half-way purchasing the tickets, they rack on significant extra fees. With zero effort I found the exact same flights on www.expedia.ca for almost the same price. Here's what I found (one-person, return).

YOW to EWR to SJO
CO2892, CO1754
Fri Feb 5th, depart 11:25am, arrive 7:40pm, duration 9h 15min

SJO to EWR to YOW
CO1797, CO2762
Mon Feb 15th, depart 7am, arrive 4:48pm, duration 8hr 48min

Continental Final Total: $1,048.52
Expedia Total: $1,096.24

So it looks like there's a little overhead, but in my opinion it's worth it. I wanted to get an idea of the flight possibilities from YOW to SJO, so I did an expedia search from every day from Feb 1st to Feb 13th with the following criteria: one-person, one-way, YOW-SJO, duration under 11hr, booked Jan 26th 2010 via expedia, cost in CAD$.

mon 1, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $835, Air Canada 479 / 998
mon 8, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $635, Air Canada 479 / 998
wed 3, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $1045, Air Canada 479 / 998
wed 10, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $705, Air Canada 479 / 998

mon 1, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
mon 8, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
tue 2, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $494, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
tue 9, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
wed 3, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
wed 10, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
thu 4, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
fri 5, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
sat 6, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
sun 7, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141

thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141
thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1314, United & American Airlines 6744 / 1207 / 2141
thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, Air Canada & American Airlines 4229 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1349, United & American Airlines 6744 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1349, Air Canada & American Airlines 4229 / 1207 / 2141
sat 13, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141

mon 8, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $648, Continental 2892 / 1754
tue 2, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
tue 9, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
wed 3, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
wed 10, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $838, Continental 2892 / 1754
thu 4, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
fri 5, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $648, Continental 2892 / 1754

wed 3, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $984, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707
wed 10, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $976, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707
wed 3, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $986, United & US Airways 8402 / 2269 / 1707
wed 10, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $977, United & US Airways 8402 / 2269 / 1707
thu 11, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $997, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2243 / 1707
thu 11, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $998, United & US Airways 8402 / 2243 / 1707
fri 5, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $835, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707

sat 6, 6:50 am, 1:50 pm, 8hr 0mn, $805, US Airways 3645 / 1923
sat 13, 6:50 am, 1:50 pm, 8hr 0mn, $734, US Airways 3341 / 1923

wed 10, 11:54 am, 9:30 pm, 10hr 36mn, $1092, Air Canada 4229 / 1374 / 2141
wed 10, 11:54 am, 9:30 pm, 10hr 36mn, $1092, United 6744 / 1374 / 2141

thu 11, 2:31 pm, 9:35 pm, 8hr 4mn, $812, Continental 2623 / 1796
fri 12, 2:31 pm, 9:35 pm, 8hr 4mn, $1035, Continental 2623 / 1796

sat 13, 6:03 am, 4:02 pm, 10hr 59mn, $917, Continental & United & LACSA 2369 / 3714 / 621

So, they're all expensive, but they're not booked well in advance and they're only one-way which presumably doesn't get some kind of return discount. It's important to note that [wed,thu,fri,sat] have arrivals [1:55,2:35,1:50] with [Air Canada, United, US Airways]. Unless you want to spend the night at San Jose or drive in the dark, you'll want these arrivals.

I'd love to go to Costa Rica again, but we're going to just wait until the week prior to our trip and then book (to some place warm) whatever flights are cheap. I've never tried a last-minute vacation before, so I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully we won't have to take some package-sit-at-a-resort-all-week deal.

On Jan 31st, I checked for flights from Ottawa to the airports on my map for one person, return. When no flight less than $1000 / 11hrs was found, I marked it as expensive.

Feb 6th to FEb 13th

SXM $872, 6hr 55mn
FPO $950, 9hr 8mn
NAS $751, 6hr 2mn
BGI $826, 8hr 4mn
POP expensive
PUJ $488, 4hr 25mn (charter)
MBJ $693, 6hr 56mn
UVF $824, 8hr 19mn
PLS $830, 6hr 50mn
LIR expensive
SJO expensive

Feb 13th to Feb 20th

SXM expensive
FPO expensive
NAS $839, 6hr 2mn
BGI expensive
POP expensive
PUJ $716, 4hr 30mn
MBJ $896, 6hr 56mn
UVF expensive
PLS expensive
LIR expensive
SJO expensive

I found some blog that says that flights from Jet Blue, Southwest, Spirit, and Air Tran aren't searched by expedia. I searched on those sites and the others below but didn't find any good flights to SJO.

Jet Blue (doesn't fly from ottawa)
Southwest (doesn't fly from ottawa)
Spirit (doesn't fly from ottawa, but you can fly very cheaply from detroit to SJO)
Air Tran (doesn't fly to costa rica)
Last Minute Travel expensive
Priceline (us departure only)
Sunquest Vacations expensive
Red Tag expensive
Flight Centre expensive

From Sunwing you can get very cheap round-trip flights from Ottawa to:

Cancun, Mexico
Cayo Coco, Cuba
Holguin, Cuba
Jamaica
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Roatan, Honduras
Varadero, Cuba

On the same site, you can get good round-trip flights from Toronto to many destinations, including:

Cienfuegos, Cuba
Acapulco, Mexico
Cozumel, Mexico
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Liberia, Costa Rica (but you have to travel on monday)
Los Cabos, Mexico
Manzanillo de Cuba
Panama
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Santa Lucia, Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
St. Lucia

I did some more digging and found these expedia competitors:
www.cheapoair.com
www.flightnetwork.com

I also found this site that lists airlines flying to Costa Rica.
* JetBlue: Orlando, Miami, daily flight
* Air Canada : Toronto
* American Airlines : Miami, Dallas
* Continental : Houston, Newark
* Delta Airlines : Atlanta
* Delta : New York to San Jose (Juan Santamaria) non-stop flight 5 x per week
* Delta : New York to Liberia Guanacaste non-stop flight twice x week
* Northwest: Mineapolis
* Sky Service : Toronto, Calgary (seems to only operate in the summer)
* United Airlines: Chicago
* US Airways : Charlotte
* Iberia - *new ( May 2007 ) 10 direct flight Madrid / San Jose per week

But finally, the gold mine: Charter flights from Expedia, but they're not easy to find. You have to click "Deals" on the right side of top bar, then "last minute getaways", second from top of left bar, then "charter flights" (middle tab). Don't forget to select origin and region in the drop downs. Note that Costa Rica and Mexico are in Latin America, not the Caribbean.

When searching on Feb 1st, I found the following departing from Ottawa.

Feb 12, 7days, Jamica, 616
Feb 12, 8days, Punta Cana, 699
Feb 13, 7days, Punta Cana, 716
Feb 14, 7days, Aruba, 839
Feb 14, 7days, Aruba, 833
Feb 12, 7days, Puerto Plata, 589
Feb 12, 7days, St. Lucia, 608
Feb 14, 8days, St. Lucia, 951
Feb 12, 7days, Jamica, 617
Feb 13, 7days, La Romana, 618
Feb 14, 7days, Puerto Plata, 649
Feb 13, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 12, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 14, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 12, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 13, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 14, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 14, 7days, SanJuan, 915
Feb 13, 7days, St. Martin, 962

But I'm not really interested in any of those destinations.

Search expedia on Feb 2nd
YOW - PLS, Feb 6, $662, 6hr 29mn
YOW - PLS, Feb 13, $1188, 6hr 29mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13, $1239, 8hr 0mn (6:50am-1:50pm, US Airways 3341 / 1923)

Search expedia on Feb 3rd
YOW - PLS, Feb 6-13, $707, 6hr 50mn (west jet YOW-YYZ-PLS)
YOW - PLS, Feb 13-20, $1301, 6hr 50mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6-13, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13-20, $1239, 8hr 0mn

Search expedia on Feb 4th
YOW - PLS, Feb 6-13, $599, 6hr 29mn (connect in philadelphia, westjet is $870)
YOW - PLS, Feb 13-20, $1288, 6hr 29mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6-13, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13-20, $1229, 8hr 0mn

So it appears that you do get a discount when booking the week of your trip. But that same SJO flight booked 3 months in advance costs $987, so the last-minute discount is inconsequential.

The plan: on the morning of Tuesday February 9th, book flights Feb 13-15, either to SJO, PLS, or failing those two, to whatever is available (maybe an all-inclusive in Cuba). Then scramble to plan the rest of the trip that same day.

Charter Flights From Ottawa (searching Feb 3rd)

St. Lucia, 8 Days, Feb 14-22, $736
Jamaica, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $803
Aruba, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $833
Puerto Plata, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $865
Bermuda, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $912
San Juan, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $915
Punta Cana, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $935
Grand Cayman, 5 Days, Feb 14-19, $967

This site says that YYZ flys direct to the following:

iFly Direct from YYZ to:

* Barbados Grantley Adams (BGI)
* Bermuda (BDA)
* Cancun (CUN)
* Hong Kong (HKG)
* Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX)
* Montego Bay Sangster (MBJ)
* Nassau (NAS)
* San Francisco (SFO)
* Vancouver (YVR)
* Victoria (YYJ)

But that's obviously an incomplete list because WesJet flys direct from YYZ to PLS.

Well, our plan didn't work.

Searches on Feb 9th, YOW-SJO

13-20, $1290
14-21, $1282
15-22, $1427
16-23, $1267
17-24, $1045

feb 20-27, $1005
f/m 27-06, $1240
mar 06-13, $1008
mar 13-20, $1458
mar 20-27, $953

What about St. Lucia? YOW-UVF

13-20, $1336
14-21, $1117
15-22, $1136
16-23, 20hrs
17-24, 20hrs

Okay, what's available on West Jet?

Feb 13-20

YOW-BGI, $1370
YOW-BDA, n/a
YOW-SJD, n/a
YOW-CUN, n/a
YOW-CCC, n/a
YOW-CZM, n/a
YOW-HOG, n/a
YOW-ZIH, n/a
YOW-MBJ, $828
YOW-NAS, $1408
YOW-PLS, $1420
YOW-PUJ, $770
YOW-UVF, $1000
YOW-VRA, n/a

YYZ-UVF
14th 6am-11am
21st 12:30pm-5:55pm
$632

Okay, Air Transat.
Nope.

We just couldn't get cheap flights to anywhere good. So we bought an Air Canada Vacations package (flight and hotel) to St. Lucia (monday to monday when we wanted saturday to saturday, and flying from Montreal when we wanted to fly from Ottawa) for $1,000/ea, but we don't intend to actually stay at the hotel. It's just that the package was the cheapest way to get the flights.

Juxtapose that to the earlier $900/ea for roundtrip flights YOW-SJO on Sat-Sat, if you're willing to book in advance.

Conclusion: Last minute sucks, book in advance (unless you want a flight/hotel package).

Print Your Own Book

2010-01-31T11:00:00.005-05:00

My dad has (over the years) written several poems and short stories, and I thought it'd be a nice idea to get them bound into a book. A quick survey of book publishing options gave me the following.

Low cost, mini-mass production -- www.scaruffi.com
Summary of self-publishing options -- mashable.com
Lulu (books, media, storefront) -- www.lulu.com
Blurb (has booksmart) -- www.blurb.com
Xlibris (for serious authors) -- www.xlibris.com
Photo Books -- www.apple.com
Discussion on Self Publishing -- www.fonerbooks.com
Semi-useful blog about how to use Lulu -- www.makeuseof.com
Cafe Press (low cost) -- www.cafepress.ca

My requirement was to print (not for resale) ~4 books of ~30 pages with flexible layout options using roughly the standard novel paper size and with the ability to embed illustrations. After reading the above, I decided it was a draw between the following two options:

LuLu: Perfect Bound, 32 pages, Softcover, 5.83in x 8.26in, $5.14 USD/book.
Blurb: Perfect Bound, 32 pages, Softcover, 5in x 8in, ~$5/book.

I'd previously heard of Blurb's booksmart software, and Lulu looks like its niche is more for helping you re-sell your final product, so I went with Blurb.

Big mistake.

In the end I was able to produce what I wanted, but the path was full of pain and misery. If I ever try something like this again, it'll be with Lulu.

In the booksmart software, there are three modes: preview, edit and layout. The preview mode (presumably) shows you exactly what your final product will look like. This is a nice feature and is pretty much the only thing I appreciated about booksmart.

Edit mode is where you add your text. It has a zoom feature but as soon as you move your cursor from one editable area to another, it reverts to the default zoom, making the zoom feature frustrating and effectively useless. Another pisser is the restriction on window size (in all modes). They have scroll bars, but for whatever reason, you're not allowed to resize the window much smaller than full-screen -- again, useless.

There are two types of text areas: fixed size and flowing. Fixed size means that if your text fills more space than the available area then it just disappears past the bottom. This isn't very useful for anything other than captions. Flowing means that when text goes past the bottom of the page, a new page is started and the text appears there -- not a break-through technology, that's how every other word processor functions. But here's the coup de grâce: if you have text flowing from page 5 to 6 and you later add text to page 5 or change font size or do anything to effect where in your text the page-break occurs then:
1. extra line-breaks are arbitrarily inserted
2. characters from you text are arbitrarily deleted.

Insane. Unbelievable. Garbage. Just to be totally clear: you add a paragraph on page 3 and text is deleted from every following page. That's totally unacceptable.

When you're in layout mode it looks like the following. Because of the "arbitrarily delete your text" bug described above, I ended up making my own layouts (one for left pages, on for right pages). And because I didn't like the dimensions of their header, I added my own. These choices made production of the book very tedious, because I had to copy (and align) my header text for every page, and I had to decide before-hand the layout of all my page text because I had to use fixed size containers and text couldn't flow from page to page. So if you're editing page 20 and you change your mind about page 3 you basically have to redo pages 3 to 20 if the page 3 changes at all effect page 4.

Finally, it has an automatic save-as-you-go feature, which I normally appreciate. But since the interfaces and controls were so horribly non-intuitive and buggy, it was difficult to know the effect (sometimes sweeping) of your actions and how to reverse them. They do offer the ability to archive the current state of your book, which I used often as a means to recover from the devastating effects of their frequent bugs.

In the end, I managed to cobble together an acceptable product and placed an order for four copies on Dec. 22nd 2009. They arrived about 30 days later, and my dad was delighted.

My advice: do publish books; don't use blurb.

Sick Record

2010-01-03T18:50:00.007-05:00

I keep track of everything. Here's my sick record. I hate being sick. Perhaps this time it was my fault because I was riotously drunk two days previous, but sometimes that just can't be avoided.

Here's the facts: Sunday, not feeling very good. Monday morning, sore throat. By Monday evening, throat is very painful, no white spots on back of throat (assume not strep), lots of thick yellow mucus from sinuses, no body aches-pains, no fever of note. Self diagnosis: bacterial infection or common cold. Treatment: rest, fluids, NeoCitran and Strepsils (because that's what my mom always gave me), Tylenol Cold and Tylenol Sinus (because we have it around the house), and Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray which I had never heard of, Amanda bought for me, and I fully endorse, and on which I am hereafter dependant.

I hate having a sore throat. It hurts so bad that I have to clench my teeth to swallow. I clench my teeth so hard that I'm worried my teeth will break. Eventually my jaw gets tired and starts to ache. It's a downward spiral of misery.

Anyway, eventually I get better and trade bedridden-sore-throat-exhaustion-with-blowy-nose for blowy-nose-with-occasional-evil-cough-that-hacks-up-green-phlegm. Yum. I never bother going to the doctor when I'm sick because they never do anything, but on the seventh day I thought I'd reconsider. So I walked to Appletree and after waiting for an hour tried to ask my question. They wanted to jam me into the tell-current-symptoms-send-him-home mould, but I eventually shook them out of it. What I wanted was three minutes to describe my week (my symptoms, my actions) and ask if I should have done anything differently (i.e. come in and asked for antibiotics). Also, seven days sounds like a long time to be sick. I didn't really get straight answers, but that's probably your standard evasion of liability. Hereafter, I will live by the following algorithm.

Never visit the doctor unless:

You have unusual symptoms (i.e. this isn't a simple cold/flu/infection).
You are apocalyptically sick.
You were sick, were getting better, have started to get worse.
You've been sick for more than ten days.

Snowshoeing On The Dark-Side

2010-01-03T09:43:00.003-05:00

This christmas, Chris & Angie got us snowshoes. So to start off the year right, the four of us followed Roland into the bush. It was a couple of years ago that Amanda had the idea that we should rent snowshoes from MEC and hike in Gatineau. But there was so little snow and the trails were so well trodden that we didn't really need them at all (crampons maybe). Despite that, we had a great time and Roland recognized the awesome snowshoe potential and bought himself a pair. Hence, he is our fearless leader in the wilds of Kantata Lakes. There's a parking lot near the beaver pond on Goulbourn Forced Road. From there we hiked west into the bush. Roland knows the place like the back of his hand. We spent most of our time on a bike trail called "The Dark Side", near the beginning of which we found a porcupine in a small cave. Very exciting. Lots of fun. The bush in Kanata isn't as pretty (or hilly) as Gatineau, but it is easier to get to and much less crowded. I prefer it.

Good Guys / Bad Guys

2009-12-15T21:13:00.002-05:00

There are 6 men, 3 good and 3 bad. They stand on the east side of a very deep chasm. An electrified (untouchable) cable spans the chasm from which hangs a little car (which luckily is also on the east side). The car can transport one or two men from one side of the chasm to the other, but can't span the distance unmanned. If at any point the bad guys outnumber the good guys, they will kill the good guys. I.E. if a good guy and bad guy are in the cable car, traveling towards a side on which there is only a bad guy, then when they arrive the good guy will be outnumbered and will surely die.

How can everyone get across the chasm alive (such that all six men are on the west side at the same time) using only the car? (No funny business with the cable or alternate routes across the chasm.)

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
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Monkeys & Doors

2009-12-13T10:19:00.003-05:00

There are 100 doors, all closed and numbered 1 to 100.
There are 100 monkeys, numbered 1 to 100.
The monkeys are sent one by one (in order) to change the states of the doors (open to closed vs. closed to open).
Monkey 1 opens every door (1, 2, 3, 4...)
Monkey 2 changes the state of every other door (2, 4, 6, 8, 10...)
Monkey 3 changes the state of every third door (3, 6, 9, 12...)
And so on for monkeys 4-100...
After the monkeys make all their changes, what is the state of door N?
i.e., give a formula or script that computes the state of an arbitrary door.

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)

4C657420282073203D3D2030202920696E646963617465207468617420646F6F72204E206973
20636C6F7365642E1F4C657420282073203D3D2031202920696E646963617465207468617420
646F6F72204E206973206F70656E2E1F4C6574202520626520746865206D6F64206F70657261
746F722E1F1F73203D20313B1F666F722028206D203D20323B206D203C3D203130303B206D2B
2B20291F7B1F20206966202820284E2025206D29203D3D20302029207B2073203D202873202B
203129202520323B207D1F7D

Mysteriously Bad Internet

2009-12-11T08:37:00.004-05:00

May 2007 - October 2008, we lived in Kanata and had Rogers cable internet. For unrelated reasons, I hate Rogers, but the quality of the internet was decent. October 2008 - present (December 2009) we live closer to downtown (K1Y 1W6), and we have a Primus phone/internet package. The price is decent ~$70/month (taxes included). The phone quality is good. We've never used more than the allotted long distance minutes. But the internet sucks. Our Primus DSL is unbelievably bad. Here's the add: Triple Value Bundle.

The first problem is that they give you an idiot's install package. When you sign up, they tell you that you have to pay them a sign-up fee. Sounds reasonable. What they don't tell you is that you're buying a useless modem/router device, and that if you thereafter want to use any other device they will refuse to support you. That wouldn't be 100% stupid if the device was a wireless router, but it's not. You can buy such a device from them, but since they don't tell you any of this at sign-up time, it's too late and you're screwed.

So, you get a Thompson SpeedStream modem (which is a DSL modem and wired router combined). They don't tell you your username and password, so you can't connect it to your wireless router (which no doubt you already have unless you've lived in a cave for the last decade and they are your very first internet provider). Solution: call them, get the user/pass for DSL, change the modem to bridged mode, setup your router with the user/pass as PPPoE. But good luck with this as their support staff speak almost no english.

Bridge Mode
TekSavvy provides this article that shows screenshots of how to set the modem to bridged mode. Basically: wired connection to modem >> 192.168.1.254 >> SpeedTouch >> Configuration >> Setup >> Bridge >> 0.35 >> new user/pass >> yes DHCP >> Finished.

Once in bridged mode you won't be able to connect directly to the internet via the modem. You'll have to setup PPPoE on your router and talk only to your router.

Why bridge mode? Well I made a bunch of changes before getting usable internet and this was one of them. The idea is that if both your modem and your router are in "Routed PPPoE" mode then they conflict. Also the idea is that the routing capability on the modem is a flaky add-on.

You access the SpeedTouch modem via: 192.168.1.254

The original setup was:

Routed PPPoE on 0/35 and 0/33 (modified by user)
Factory Defaults
Configuration modified by CWMP
(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Bern, Rome, Stockholm
Web Browsing Interception: Automatic

Speed
I've never much cared about speed before. But the Primus DSL would sometimes drop to such an abysmal crawl that I was obliged to get some measurements. You can go to speedtest.net or speedtest.primus.ca to measure the speed of your internet connection.

Kbps = Kilo bits per second
Mbps = Mega bits per second
1 Mbps = 1000 Kbps
KBps = Kilo Bytes per second
X Kbps = X/8 KBps

Wired to the SpeedTouch Primus modem in default (Routed PPPoE) mode:
speedtest.net (preferred server: toronto) 1808-2111 Kbps download, 111-127 Kbps upload

Wireless Router PPPoE to SpeedTouch modem in bridge mode:
speedtest.net (preferred server: toronto) 1639-1956 Kbps download, 96-152 Kbps upload

One site I found said that average high-speed internet is 1.9 Mbps = 1900 Kbps = 237.5 KBps = 1 GB in 73 min. Which is probably okay.

But from my box at work, the internet is 40x faster:
speedtest.net 42,368 Kbps download, 5,932 Kbsp upload, ping 17 ms.
speedtest.primus.ca 38,392 Kbps download, 12,914 Kbps upload, latency 6 ms.

Primus says you will get up to 7 Mbps = 7,000 Kbps, and I'm getting 1,800 Kbps, so that's 25% of what I might expect. Not terrible. But before all my fixes, I was getting 300 Kbps. That's unbelievably bad.

Wireless Channels
Initially, I had horrible download speeds, so I tried all channels 1-11 on my wireless router. It's true that some of them (2 and 3 in my case) really sucked. But the others were all about the same and didn't give me much improvement over my initial config (ch6). In the end I settled on ch7.

An easy way to test for bad channels is a ping test:
cmd> ping -t 192.168.1.1
This sends pings directly to my router. My good channels had 0% packet loss and almost all times shorter than 3ms.

Software
I did three things to my laptop before I got usable internet. I'm not sure if all were required, because I didn't do reboot tests in between each.

1. install the latest drivers for the wireless card
2. install the latest management software for the wireless card
3. tell the wireless card to always use full power
4. use WPA instead of WEP at the router (this seems like an all-around good idea)
5. shut off the macbookair

MacBookAir
It's possible that our MacBookAir was causing part of the problem. It seemed that when the MacBookAir was powered off, then my ASUS L5GA laptop with Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG card would get ~30,000kbps. But when the MacBookAir was powered on, I would get 600kbps. Although those results weren't very consistent. Perhaps it had nothing to do with it. Perhaps there was some other intermittent interference from other apartments in my building.

Here's some ideas I've gathered:
http://forums.macnn.com/92/networking/305303/mysterious-crashing-with-linksys-wrt54g/
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/990169.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1080253&tstart=645
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=489910&tstart=15

Current Status
I now run the ASUS always wired with a static IP. The MacBookAir runs wireless with a dynamic IP. When we have intenet, it is decent ~2,500kbps. But the router will intermittently become disconnected from PPPoE, which is solved by rebooting the SpeedTouch modem (toggling its power switch) and asking the router to reconnect (via the router's status page at 192.168.1.1). This might not happen for several days, or it might happen several times in a given day. It may be correlated with bad weather. It doesn't seem to be correlated with rate of internet usage. It's a real pain, but it's work-around-able, and I'm not willing to waste more time debugging it.

I think I'll probably just go back to Rogers.

Nine Fifty

2009-12-10T07:34:00.004-05:00

Here's something drawn on paper.
Add one mark to make it mean nine fifty.

Here's an example of one mark.

Here's an example of two marks.

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)

44726177206120686F72697A6F6E74616C206C696E652061626F766520746865207365636F6E
6420766572746963616C206C696E652E1F5468697320676976657320796F753A202231302054
6F20313022207768696368206973207468652073616D65206173207468652074696D6520393A
35302E

Home Made Pizza

2009-12-10T07:04:00.003-05:00

Gently mix 1 cup lukewarm water, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tsp garlic or onion powder (no salt) and 1 tbsp dry yeast. Put 2.5 cups of flour in a large bowl and mix in the liquid. Mash it around with your hands a bit so that it's thoroughly mixed and cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 450.

Wipe off your counter and kneed the dough on it until it looks good. Holding it up in the air, stretch it out as best you can. Lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough. It probably won't look much like a circle. We have a large round perforated pizza pan. I roll it out larger than the pan, grease the pan, lay it on the pan, rip off the parts that hang over and use them to patch the parts that don't quite reach.

Bake the crust (with nothing on it) for 10 minutes. Take it out and add toppings. Bake another 10-15 minutes.

Delicious Dessert By Amanda

2009-12-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

Light Bulb and Switches

2009-12-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

There exists 1 incandescent light bulb and 3 independent binary switches.
The light bulb cannot be observed from the location where the switches can be manipulated.
On/Off positions for the switches are marked (known).
First, manipulate the switches. Second, observe the light bulb.
You only get to manipulate the switches once, you only get to observe the light bulb once.
Which switch controls the light bulb?

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
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Clearcase Cheat Sheet

2009-12-08T10:47:00.007-05:00

• write a new config spec with private branch (by hand)
• this doesn't work unless the "branch type" already exists (see below)

element * CHECKEDOUT
element * ...\my_private_branch\LATEST
mkbranch my_private_branch
element * \main\LATEST
element * \main\0

• windows example of creating the "branch type"
• you might have to do this on all vobs from which you plan to checkout

cd /d "X:/my_vob"
cleartool mkbrtype –nc my_private_branch

• here's where the help files are on my computer

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Rational/ClearCase/doc/help/cc_ref/ct_rmname.htm

• to remove a file from a view (it still exists in clearcase) you use the rmname command
• the folder must already be checked out

cleartool rmname myfile.cxx

• to move a file from one place to another, you use the mv command

cleartool mv myfile.cxx somewhere\myfile.cxx

• to add a new file to source control, you use the mkelem command
• here's an example in unix

cd /vobs/myvob/myfolder
cleartool checkout -unr -nc mysubfolder
cd mysubfolder
cleartool mkelem myexistingfile.cxx
.
cleartool checkin myexistingfile.cxx
<your comments here>
.
cd ../
cleartool checkin mysubfolder
.

• to see the difference between two versions of a certain file

cleardiff \myvob\myfolder\myfile.cxx@@\main\mybranch\2 \myvob\myfolder\myfile.cxx@@\main\anotherbranch\3

• to get/set permission info for a file in clearcase

Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool describe -long myfile.exe

version "myfile.exe@@\main\1"
created 2009-03-30T13:45:41-04 by Michael Holtstrom (myname.mygroup@mymachine)
"checkin comments"
Element Protection:
User : DOMAIN\myname  : r--
Group: DOMAIN\mygroup : r--
Other:                : r--
element type: compressed_file
predecessor version: \main\0
Attributes:

Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool protect -chmod 755 myfile.exe

• to get help

cleartool man

• for a given view, what are the versions of a certain set of files

Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -cvi -print

.           All elements in and below the current directory [Z:\myvob\myfolder]
-nr         Don't recurse. Only look at elements within this directory.
-type f     Only look at elements that are of type file (i.e. not directories, not symlinks)
-name sk*.h Only look at files whose names start with 'sk' and end with '.h'
-cvi        Display the version that is currently selected by this view.
-print      Print the result-set to screen

• same as above but the search location is explicitly specified

Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" -nr -type f -name sk*.h -cvi -print

• for a set of files, find those that are on a certain branch and report the version selected by this view

Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -branch "brtype(mybranch)" -cvi -print

-branch "brtype(mybranch)" == First eliminate all versions of selected elements that *aren't* on branch 'mybranch'
-cvi == Then from the remainder, only keep the versions that are currently selected by this view.

See above for meaning of [ . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -print ]

• for a set of files, find those that aren't on a certain branch and report the version selected by this view

Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -branch "!brtype(main)" -cvi -print

-branch "!brtype(main)" == First eliminate all versions of selected elements that *are* on branch 'main'
-cvi == Then from the remainder, only keep the versions that are currently selected by this view.

See above for meaning of [ . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -print ]

• find all files of a certain type in a certain location

Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -name *.h -cvi -print

"Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" == All elements in and below these directories [Z:\myvob\myfolder], [Z:\myvob\another]
-name *.h == Only look at files whose names end with '.h'

See above for meaning of [ -nr -type f -cvi -print ]

• find all files from a set of types/extensions in a certain location

Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -name *.[tch]* -cvi -print

-name *.[tch]* == Only look at files whose names contain '.t' or '.c' or '.h' (i.e. '.txt', '.cpp', '.cxx', '.c', '.h')

See above for meaning of [ "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -cvi -print ]

Movie Ratings

2009-12-07T10:35:00.003-05:00

Here's some wisdom from my brother:

The Boondock Saints
Tomatometer: 16%
IMDB Rating: 7.9

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
Tomatometer: 21%
IMDB Rating: 7.5

First of all, if you believed the Rotten Tomatoes rating, you would never watch either movie [edit: for those of you who don't know, Boondock Saints is one of the best movies of all time]. Second of all, there is almost zero chance of the sequel being better than the original, as RT would suggest.

Rotten Tomatoes: Boooooo.

Children's Ages

2009-12-07T10:12:00.004-05:00

Jill: I don't know the ages of any of your three children.
Jane: The product of their ages is 36.
Jill: I still don't know their ages.
Jane: The sum of their ages is your street address.
Jill: I still don't know their ages.
Jane: The oldest has red hair.

How old are the children?

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
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Burning Sticks

2009-12-06T12:29:00.004-05:00

There exist four sticks and a fire source.
Lit from one end, a stick is guaranteed to be entirely consumed by fire in exactly 1 hour.
Each stick is different and burns non-linearly (i.e. it is not the case that the burning behaviour of one stick tells you anything about the burning behaviour of another stick, and it is not the case that half a stick burns in half an hour).
Measure exactly 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
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Billiard Balls

2009-12-05T21:56:00.006-05:00

There exist 8 balls, seven of equal weight, one heavier.
There exists a balancing scale.
Find the heavy ball with 2 weighings (uses of the scale).

Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)

4E616D65207468652062616C6C733A20312C20322C20332C20342C20352C20362C20372C2038
2E1F576569676820312C322C3320616761696E737420342C352C362E1F496620746865792077
65696768207468652073616D653A1F205765696768203720616761696E737420382E1F205468
6520686561766965722069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F456C736520696620312C32
2C332069732068656176696572207468616E20342C352C363A1F205765696768203120616761
696E737420322E1F204966207468657920776179207468652073616D652C2033206973207468
6520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F20456C7365207468652068656176696572206973207468652073
6F6C7574696F6E2E1F456C736520342C352C362069732068656176696572207468616E20312C
322C333A1F205765696768203420616761696E737420352E1F20496620746865792077617920
7468652073616D652C20362069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F20456C736520746865
20686561766965722069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E

Moving from vs6 to vs9 breaks Latin1 support

2009-12-03T09:53:00.004-05:00

I have a database that contains latin1 data and is accessed by several applications. One application runs in the msdos console. We used to build it with vs6 (msdev98) but recently moved to vs9 (microsoft visual studio 2008). We call setlocale(LC_CTYPE,"") near startup.

Default winxp is oem cp437. That means that not all latin1 characters can be displayed in msdos. Consequently, we detect these characters and display simple-ascii escape sequences instead.

Default winxp is LC_CTYPE English_United States.1252. In vs6 that didn't matter, but in vs9, when using printf, a magic last-minute best-fit mapping occurs. This is very painful for me.

I put together the following app so that I could see what's going on. As far as I can tell, the only way to defeat vs9's best-fit mapping is to instead call setlocale(LC_CTYPE,".OCP").

// Note: In order to ditch the UNICODE define you have to do the following:
// Configuration Properties >> C/C++ >> Preprocessor >> Preprocessor Definitions
// >> [uncheck] Inherit from parent or project defaults
// If your product is 14 years old, switching to UNICODE just isn't an option.

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

void info()
{
  // GetCPInfoEx vars
  BOOL res;
  CPINFOEX CPInfoEx;
  
  // Registry vars
  #define CHAR_CMD_REG_DATA_SIZE 1024
  DWORD ret;
  HKEY hKey = 0;
  BYTE data[CHAR_CMD_REG_DATA_SIZE];
  DWORD dataSize = CHAR_CMD_REG_DATA_SIZE;
  bool regIsOpen = false;
  
  // GetLocaleInfo vars
  int status;
  #define LOCALE_DATA_SIZE 1024
  char localeData[LOCALE_DATA_SIZE];
  int localeDataSize = LOCALE_DATA_SIZE;
  
  // Open the registry
  ret = RegOpenKeyEx( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Nls\\CodePage"
                    , 0, KEY_EXECUTE, &hKey );
  if (ret) { printf("\n RegOpenKeyEx Failed"); }
  else { regIsOpen = true; }
  
  // -----------------------------------------------------
  
  // http://codesnipers.com/?q=strange-case-of-two-system-locale-ansi-charsets#comment-53272
  // http://codesnipers.com/?q=node/46
  // http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2005/02/01/364707.aspx
  //
  // LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT : Control Panel >> Regional and Language Options 
  // >> Regional Options [tab] >> Standards and Formats
  // - is per user and does not require reboot
  //
  // LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT : Control Panel >> Regional and Language Options 
  // >> Advanced [tab] >> Language for non-Unicode Programs
  // - is system wide and requires reboot
  // - specifies the default ANSI and OEM code pages, and some of the font 
  // linking preferences
  
  // -----------------------------------------------------
  
  printf("\n GetConsoleCP() %d -- Note: effected by the chcp command.\n",GetConsoleCP());
  
  printf("\n GetOEMCP() %d",GetOEMCP());
  
  res = GetCPInfoEx( CP_OEMCP, 0, &CPInfoEx );
  if (res==0) { printf("\n GetCPInfoEx Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetCPInfoEx(CP_OEMCP) %d",CPInfoEx.CodePage); }
  
  status = GetLocaleInfo( LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTCODEPAGE, localeData, localeDataSize );
  if (status==0) { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,OEM) %s",localeData); }
  
  status = GetLocaleInfo( LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTCODEPAGE, localeData, localeDataSize );
  if (status==0) { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT,OEM) %s",localeData); }
  
  if (regIsOpen)
  {
    dataSize = CHAR_CMD_REG_DATA_SIZE;
    ret = RegQueryValueEx( hKey, "OEMCP", NULL, NULL, data, &dataSize );
    if (ret) { printf("\n RegQueryValueEx Failed"); }
    else { printf("\n Registry...\\CodePage\\OEMCP %s\n",(char*)data); }
  }
  
  // -----------------------------------------------------
  
  printf("\n GetACP() %d",GetACP());
  
  res = GetCPInfoEx( CP_ACP, 0, &CPInfoEx );
  if (res==0) { printf("\n GetCPInfoEx Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetCPInfoEx(CP_ACP) %d",CPInfoEx.CodePage); }
  
  status = GetLocaleInfo( LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTANSICODEPAGE, localeData, localeDataSize );
  if (status==0) { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,ANSI) %s",localeData); }
  
  status = GetLocaleInfo( LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTANSICODEPAGE, localeData, localeDataSize );
  if (status==0) { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo Failed"); }
  else { printf("\n GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT,ANSI) %s",localeData); }
  
  if (regIsOpen)
  {
    dataSize = CHAR_CMD_REG_DATA_SIZE;
    ret = RegQueryValueEx( hKey, "ACP", NULL, NULL, data, &dataSize );
    if (ret) { printf("\n RegQueryValueEx Failed"); }
    else { printf("\n Registry...\\CodePage\\ACP %s\n",(char*)data); }
  }
  
  // -----------------------------------------------------
  
  char * str;
  
  str = setlocale(LC_ALL     , NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_ALL      = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_ALL      = %s",str); }
  str = setlocale(LC_COLLATE , NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_COLLATE  = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_COLLATE  = %s",str); }
  str = setlocale(LC_CTYPE   , NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_CTYPE    = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_CTYPE    = %s",str); }
  str = setlocale(LC_MONETARY, NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_MONETARY = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_MONETARY = %s",str); }
  str = setlocale(LC_NUMERIC , NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_NUMERIC  = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_NUMERIC  = %s",str); }
  str = setlocale(LC_TIME    , NULL); if (str == NULL) { printf("\n LC_TIME     = unknown"); } else { printf("\n LC_TIME     = %s",str); }
  
  printf("\n\n"
  " 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F\n\n"
  " 2 \x20 \x21 \x22 \x23 \x24 \x25 \x26 \x27 \x28 \x29 \x2a \x2b \x2c \x2d \x2e \x2f\n"
  " 3 \x30 \x31 \x32 \x33 \x34 \x35 \x36 \x37 \x38 \x39 \x3a \x3b \x3c \x3d \x3e \x3f\n"
  " 4 \x40 \x41 \x42 \x43 \x44 \x45 \x46 \x47 \x48 \x49 \x4a \x4b \x4c \x4d \x4e \x4f\n"
  " 5 \x50 \x51 \x52 \x53 \x54 \x55 \x56 \x57 \x58 \x59 \x5a \x5b \x5c \x5d \x5e \x5f\n"
  " 6 \x60 \x61 \x62 \x63 \x64 \x65 \x66 \x67 \x68 \x69 \x6a \x6b \x6c \x6d \x6e \x6f\n"
  " 7 \x70 \x71 \x72 \x73 \x74 \x75 \x76 \x77 \x78 \x79 \x7a \x7b \x7c \x7d \x7e \x7f\n"
  " 8 \x80 \x81 \x82 \x83 \x84 \x85 \x86 \x87 \x88 \x89 \x8a \x8b \x8c \x8d \x8e \x8f\n"
  " 9 \x90 \x91 \x92 \x93 \x94 \x95 \x96 \x97 \x98 \x99 \x9a \x9b \x9c \x9d \x9e \x9f\n"
  " a \xa0 \xa1 \xa2 \xa3 \xa4 \xa5 \xa6 \xa7 \xa8 \xa9 \xaa \xab \xac \xad \xae \xaf\n"
  " b \xb0 \xb1 \xb2 \xb3 \xb4 \xb5 \xb6 \xb7 \xb8 \xb9 \xba \xbb \xbc \xbd \xbe \xbf\n"
  " c \xc0 \xc1 \xc2 \xc3 \xc4 \xc5 \xc6 \xc7 \xc8 \xc9 \xca \xcb \xcc \xcd \xce \xcf\n"
  " d \xd0 \xd1 \xd2 \xd3 \xd4 \xd5 \xd6 \xd7 \xd8 \xd9 \xda \xdb \xdc \xdd \xde \xdf\n"
  " e \xe0 \xe1 \xe2 \xe3 \xe4 \xe5 \xe6 \xe7 \xe8 \xe9 \xea \xeb \xec \xed \xee \xef\n"
  " f \xf0 \xf1 \xf2 \xf3 \xf4 \xf5 \xf6 \xf7 \xf8 \xf9 \xfa \xfb \xfc \xfd \xfe \xff\n"
  "\n");
}
  
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
  info();
  setlocale(LC_CTYPE,"");
  info();
  return 0;
}

Monty Hall Revisited

2009-12-02T10:45:00.001-05:00

My interest in Monty Hall isn't in the solution, but in the clarity of the solution. For whatever reasons, if you just (without much forethought) try to explain the solution to someone, most people seem inclined to resist the truth for quite some time. I believe that the solution can be made simple. Here's my latest stab at it.

Let me describe a game. There are three doors. Two are empty and one hides a prize. I always know what's behind the doors. You pick one door. Of the remaining two, I will open one that is empty (never the prize door, remember I know where the prize is hidden). Now that two doors remain, you may open one (stay or switch). If you reveal the prize, you win.

You might want to believe that once only two doors are closed, each has a 50/50 chance of hiding the prize. But that's not true. Here's why.

The same game can be described as follows. There are three doors. Two are empty and one hides a prize. You pick one door. Now you may have the contents behind the door you picked, or you may have the contents behind both of the other doors, but when opening them, I will always open the empty one first. It's the same game, but it's hopefully clear to everyone that two doors are better than one.

Costa Rica

2009-12-01T21:49:00.008-05:00

We started planning a trip to Costa Rica in early December 2008. We bought a Lonely Planet guide book, got in touch with Gap Adventures and booked flights with American Airlines via expedia. The flights were $790.69 x 2 people plus $58.47 for Direct Flight Economy-Park park-and-fly. In the end we had a great trip, and I'd definitely like to go again, but there's several things I'd do differently. In this blog I give a bit of advice, rant about Gap Adventures, describe our actual trip (and what it cost), and give list some useful info, like the bulletin from the embassy. Before you go, read up on wikipdeia. I found the article to be super interesting, especially how their current democracy came to be.
My Advice

Learn some Spanish. Bring colónes (their money) into the country, and withdraw more from their bank machines. Don't use USD because it'll be harder to know what it's actually costing you. Get a good guide book with details on small towns and lots of maps. Get good road maps or a GPS. Rent a car from adobe and get a cell phone from them. If you get into trouble, they'll help you out. Note that your key chain probably has a RF security device in it, so it has to be next to the drive-shaft or the car won't start. So don't take it off and chuck it in the glove compartment. If you get lost: backtrack. Don't try an alternate route. Book only hotels in advance. At the hotels, someone will speak English. Ask them about local tours and services. Pay for the expensive tours. You'll get smart guides with small groups. Costa Rica is great. Go soon. Go often. And here's a video from Amanda.

Why Not To Book With Gap Adventures

Gap looks like a great company, and they probably are good at their core business which seems to be low-cost group tours on a well worn route. But they will also book custom self-directed tours for you. For $25, they give you a suggested itinerary which I've copied most of below in case that link dies. We were exclusively in contact with Cindy Kwan from Gap, so maybe it's just her, but in any case I was totally dissatisfied with their service.

Feb 7 Liberia - Tamarindo
Pick up your car at the airport and transfer to your Tamarindo
Overnight at Hotel Pasatiempo

Feb 8 - Tamarindo
Get ready for your 2hr surf lesson today! Spend the rest of your day testing out the waves.
Overnight at Hotel Pasatiempo

Feb 9 Arenal
Transfer to Arenal today and take part in the Arenal Volcano Hike followed by a relaxing soak at the Tabacon Hot Springs. Tonight your dinner is included as well.
Overnight at Arenal Paraiso Hotel

Feb 10 Arenal
After breakfast get ready for the Venado Caves Tour. The rest of your day is at leisure.
Overnight at Arenal Paraiso

Feb 11 Manuel Antonio
Transfer to Manuel Antonio and this small beach town.
Overnight at Tres Banderas Hotel

Feb 11 Manuel Antonio
Spend the day at leisure. There are plenty of watersports or other outdoor activities to take part in.
Overnight at Tres Banderas Hotel

Feb 12 Manuel Antonio
Tour Manuel Antonio National Park today and spend the rest of your day hiking the trails or relaxing and one of the many beaches found in the park.
Overnight at Tres Banderas Hotel

Feb 13 Liberia
No services booked.

Feb 14 Liberia
Tour ends today. Bring your car back to the airport and prepare for your flight home.

Okay, that looks reasonable, if a little sparse on detail. The first one she gave us was much worse. It had us spending our first and last nights at a Best Western. I don't fly half way across the world to sleep at a Best Western. But it was a good starting point. I took her first itinerary and googled around and came up with the following. A friend of mine suggested surfing in Tamarindo, so I modded her original schedule by sending us to Hotel Pasatiempo in Tamarindo for our first night instead of withering at Best Western in Liberia. The ease at which I found bookable online hotels and activities should have tipped me off that booking with Gap was a waste of time, but I had the cognitive dissonance of not wanting to rip-off her itinerary.

The Pre-Book items below are the things we were considering having her to book for us. Note that I easily found all this detail on the internet. None of it was provided by her. What you see above is all we ever got: "Pick up your car at the airport". What kind of car? I only drive automatic.

Another important thing completely lacking from Gap was any help with transportation: "Transfer to Arenal today". What route? How long will it take? Will I be able to get there in time for whatever we've booked next? I googled around and found some discussion boards (links below), so I was able to roughly estimate travel times.

So anyway, I sent the following to her as a suggested itinerary based on her original itinerary. I wanted to know: Can you book this? What will it cost? What benefit do I get by booking with you instead of booking it myself?

--- Feb 7th ---
3:45am Arrive at Direct Flight Economy-Park (map). Shuttles run 24hrs with max 20 min wait for pickup.
4:15am Arrive at Pearson Airport.
6:15am American Airlines flight 1409 departs from Terminal 3 (food for purchase).
9:40am Arrive in Miami (3hr 25min air time).
11:05am American Airlines flight 2127 departs.
12:55pm Arrive in Liberia (2hr 50min air time).
Pre-Book Pickup rental car from Budget 100m west of airport.
- Rental for 7th at noon to 14th at noon of a CFAR compact 4x4 automatic, with coverage for supplemental liability, an additional driver, and a GPS. $387.30 USD (+taxes?)
- An extra $132.65 USD (+taxes?) for "super collision damage" coverage.
- Cost of GPS is $69.95 USD (+taxes?)
Drive to Tamarindo (~1hr?) (~total travel time 11.5hrs)
Pre-Book 2 nights ~3:00pm Check in to Hotel Pasatiempo. 2 nights, standard room, $109.00 x2 (USD+taxes?) (a different hotel would be okay)
--- Feb 8th ---
Pre-Book Surfing Lessons
--- Feb 9th ---
10:00am Check-out and drive to Arenal (~2.5hrs?)
Pre-Book 2 nights Arenal Paraiso Hotel "superior" room (unless the "standard" room has a better view), $110.00 x2 (USD+taxes?)
Pre-Book 3:45pm Volcano Hike (~3.5hrs?) $35 x2 (USD+taxes?)
Hike to the Arenal Volcano along the Silencio path with a professional local bilingual guide. The walk to the Silencio viewpoint takes about 1.5hrs. There you will be able to see lava flows. After this you will head for the Arenal hot water springs for a relaxing hot water spring bath. $35.00ea
10am-10pm Hot Springs (no cost)
[edit: at the time, the arenal paraiso website was much less sucky and provided lots of details on bookable events like the volcano hike and their free hot springs. I turns out that Cindy was talking about completely different hot springs which were admittedly awesome.]
--- Feb 10th ---
Pre-Book 2:00pm Venado Caves Tour (~3.5hrs?) $45 x2 (USD+taxes?)
--- Feb 11th ---
10:00am Check-out and drive to Manuel Antonio (~6hrs?)
Pre-Book 2 nights Hotel California "deluxe" room (unless the "standard" room has a better view), $160.00 x2 (USD+taxes?)
--- Feb 12th ---
Tour Manuel Antonio National Park ($3 parking, $7ea entrance, $20ea group guide 2hr tour, not pre-booked)
--- Feb 13th ---
Drive back to Liberia
Pre-Book Best Western Las Espuelas (or similar), $76.00 (USD+taxes?)
-- Better than this would be to drive back to within a 3hrs drive of Liberia and spend the day/night there. That way we can wake up and drive straight to the airport, and we don't waste the entire day.
could stay at "Canas"
could stop at waterfall in "Bagaces"
could stay at ots.ar.cr or at the ranger station in "Parque Nacional Palo Verde"
--- Feb 14th ---
11:30am Arrive at Liberia Airport and return rental car.
Pay $26 x2 cash (USD?) exit tax.
2:00pm American Airlines flight 2130 departs (food for purchase).
5:40pm Arrive in Miami (2hr 40min air time).
8:05pm American Airlines flight 646 departs.
11:14pm Arrive in Toronto at Terminal 3 (3hr 9min air time).

So, I give her all that, and I point out that neither of us have ever driven a manual transmission and eight days later she replies with that no-details itinerary that I copied above. As far as I can tell, she's simply offering to book you at a hotel, and book some of the hotel-provided tours for you. But since she's only offering major hotels that are bookable over the web, you can easily do it yourself. And that way you can choose from the 10 tours they offer rather than just doing what Cindy supposes you'll prefer. Better yet, don't book the tours in advance, just show up and ask the people at the hotel what kinds of local services are available. There's no shortage of advertisements.

Maybe we just had bad luck. But I was very disappointed with Cindy Kwan. I don't mind paying, but I want to know how much I'm paying and what I'm getting for it. I called her and asked: What is the overhead that Gap charges to do the booking? What additional services do we receive? (i.e. maps). She basically refused to answer these questions, stating that she would get different rates and didn't know what rates I would get if I booked myself (which is kind of ridiculous since I provided them above). But there is the ambiguity of: "get ready for the Venado Caves Tour". Does she mean the $45 tour described on the Arenal Paraiso website? She never confirmed that her vague titles did/didn't match the details I provided. She did say they'd provide maps though (more on that later).

Now about the car. She sends us itinerary #1. I send her the details above and call her to discuss them and make a big deal on the phone about absolutely requiring an automatic. She says sure, no problem, give me a couple of days. Eight days later she replies with itinerary #2. Amanda calls her to confirm that she'll book us an automatic (because it's not specified in the itinerary). She says no, sorry, that'll cost extra (what? wasn't I clear?). She replies with itinerary #3 which is identical except the price has increased.

At this point I've lost all confidence in her, but it's Jan 19th and our flight is Feb 7th. On the 14th we told her to make it an automatic and book it. But on the 20th she sends us an itinerary (the identical one with the increased cost) for approval. What approval? We've already approved it. Book it. I should have backed out then. I could probably have booked the whole thing myself in a couple of hours.

Jan 23rd. Still not booked. Now she tells us that we must provide proof of "travel insurance with emergency evacuation and repatriation up to US $200,000" or pay for hers. Well, we do have travel insurance (from work benefits) but I have no idea if it covers "emergency evacuation and repatriation", so I send her my policy and ask her to confirm that it is acceptable (after all, I might as well get her to do some work for that $500+ that we're paying). No reply.

That's my biggest complaint. No reply. She sends proposals that are always in the same cut-and-paste style, never with the detail I request, and when I ask a question to which she can't provide a cut and paste (albeit insufficient) answer, she just doesn't reply.

Jan 23rd. She's booking stuff now. We get this message:

The Suzuki Jimmy is not available and we can also offer the Tucson for an extra $72 CAD. Also the Hotel California in Manuel Antonio is sold out, the other hotel we use is the Tres Banderas. Let me know if this is ok and to go ahead with the confirmation.

I reply:

Hi Cindy,
Yes the Tucson is fine.
Yes the Tres Banderas is fine.
Please book them.
Once everything is booked, can you send us specific details for our itinerary.
For example:
- checkin at Arenal Paraiso Hotel after Xam/pm + description of room
i.e. superior/standard
- Volcano Hike departs from X at 3:45pm, duration ~3.5hrs
- etc.

All these details were of course on the itinerary I sent her. But I've lost all faith in her ability, so I want a written record of what to expect when we arrive. Is that too much to ask? Yep. She ignores me again.

Jan 26th

Hi Michael and Amanda,
Please send me your flight details as soon as possible so I can your final documents to you.

What the hell?

Hi Cindy.
Our flight details are included in our suggested itinerary.
[dead url here]
Here's a copy.
...

Jan 26th at 3:10pm

Services booked:
Attached are your final documents. Please review them and ensure all details are accurate. You will be met by your representative at the airport and brought to Adobe Car Rental. All of the details regarding your trip, activities, maps, check in's and hotel information will be given to you once you arrive.

Ensure the details are accurate? What details? The final documents are really just the itinerary that we already approved. Very vague. But she has let some detail slip: Adobe Car Rental. I'd suggested Budget in my proposal. Who cares. I check out the site anyway. Big surprise.

Thank you.
Could we possibly see the details regarding our trip, activities,
check in's and hotel information before we depart?
One other thing.
Below, you mention "Adobe Car Rental".
http://www.adobecar.com/ describes the "Suzuki Jimmy" and "Tucson"
that you mentioned in you Jan21 email as manual transmission.
Please confirm that the car you book for us is automatic transmission.
Thanks.

Her reply

Hi Michael,
The car booked for you is automatic as we have discussed. In fact you have been upgraded to a Mitsubishi Nativa at no extra cost.
I cannot send you the details regarding check ins and hotel info as the operator that we work with in Costa Rica will meet you once you arrive and give you those documents. We don't issue them from here.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. It's obvious to me that she didn't book an automatic. We were billed $2,447.00 on the 21st when we approved her itinerary. Then a separate $72.00 on the 23rd for the upgrade from (manual) "Suzuki Jimmy" to the (manual) "Tucson". Note that I expected a $160 room at Hotel California but received a $70 room at Hotel Las Tres Banderas instead but this didn't reduce our bill. It's obvious to me that she only upgraded us to the Mitsubishi Nativa when I for the 3rd time pointed out that we requested an automatic but she provided a manual. I'm convinced that I spent more time checking up on her shoddy work than I would have spent booking the entire thing myself.

Okay, what about: "The operator that we work with in Costa Rica will meet you once you arrive and give you those documents." Also bullshit. The free airport shuttle from adobe car rental met us at the airport and had a little packet of vouchers to give us. That's it. No detail. No maps. What follows is the entire deliverable from Cindy Kwan (minus the vouchers for Adobe Rent-A-Car and Hotel Pasatiempo which I didn't think to photograph).

So that's my big long angry story about why not to book with Gap Adventures. I've heard good things about them, so maybe it was just Cindy, or maybe they're only good at their pre-packaged group tours, or maybe there more useful in a less internet-enabled, tourist-friendly country than Costa Rica. But next time I go, I'll just book a car and some hotels in advance and leave everything else to chance.

Here's what actually happened to us in Costa Rica

--- Feb 7th ---

3:15am Get in the car and drive to the park-and-fly at 655 Dixon Road. (map).

3:45am Arrive at Direct Flight Economy-Park. (requires voucher) Shuttles run 24hrs with max 20 min wait for pickup.

4:15am Arrive at Pearson Airport.

6:15am American Airlines flight 1409 departs from Terminal 3 (food for purchase).

9:40am Arrive in Miami (3hr 25min air time).

11:05am American Airlines flight 2127 departs.

12:55pm Arrive in Liberia (2hr 50min air time).

We were met at the airport by guy from Adobe Rent-A-Car with a sign with our name on it. He had some English. He drove us to Adobe. This service is free with the rental.

At adobe they gave us our vouchers. We paid an additional $160.89 CDN for extra insurance (i.e. the maximum that they offer), cell phone rental, and coverage for both of us as drivers. Basic insurance was covered by the GAP voucher. They said that they were giving us the cell phone for free. We should have also rented a GPS. They gave us a free map, but it didn't have nearly enough detail to navigate.

2:00pm Pickup rental car Mitsubishi Nativa / Automatic 4WD from Adobe Rent a Car (requires voucher)

Drive to Playa Tamarindo (took a little over an hour, paved the whole way)

4:00pm Check in to Hotel Pasatiempo. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights) (we left Scarborough 13 hours and 45 minutes ago)
This hotel was fantastic. In my opinion, it's the best in town. Very private.

Had dinner at Taco Stop. Run by an American girl. Excellent. Walked on the beach at sunset.

--- Feb 8th ---

Breakfast at some place by the water. Not so great.

Went walking around the outskirts of town. There is a sort-of nature preserve. Saw some monkeys, and lots of birds. Also climbed up a huge hill behind the centre of town. Great view. Lots of land cleared as if they will be putting up condos soon.

12pm 2hr Surf Lesson. (requires voucher) A guy met us at our hotel at noon. We walked down the street to the surf shop and picked up boards and rash-guard. Then down to the beach for some surfing. Was lots of fun.

Have been buying food at the local's grocery store. Great banana bread. Another great sunset on the beach.

Dinner after dark at an Italian place at the end of our street, near the water. Great lady runs the place, but didn't much like my sandwich. Amanda's pizza was excellent though.

--- Feb 9th ---

9:00am Check-out and drive to Arenal Volcano near La Fortuna (got lost, ~6hrs)

Instead of backtracking to Liberia, we took the only other obvious route on our map. It was very slow dirt roads at first, but then was paved for the rest of the way. But we missed a turn off and were lost for hours. Finally arrived at 3pm. Rescheduled Volcano and Hotsprings to next day.

3:00pm Check in to Arenal Paraiso Hotel. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights)
This place is a resort. It's very beautiful, but very American. Relaxed in the hot springs. Very great. Dinner at the Hotel restaurant. Decent.

--- Feb 10th ---

7:45am Venado Caves Tour (requires voucher)
Okay, this is exactly why GAP sucks. This tour was great, but we didn't know that it would be early morning or that we were going to crawl through a muddy cave, get soaking wet and need a complete change of clothes. Happily the guide warned us of all this when he picked us up.

This tour is lots of fun if you like crawling around in dark, dank, humid caves. On our tour there were five people total: us, the guide, and a couple from Lithuania.

3:15pm Volcano Hike (requires voucher)
Great tour. Guide picks us up and drives us to the other (active) side of the volcano. We hike through the park (jungle with very wide path) to about 1km from the volcano (actually on top of the rubble from an old eruption). He tells us about the area along the way and we see some interesting birds and termites. Little white clouds of dust roll down the slope as the volcano spits out white hot chunks of rock. This sounds like gunshots. This is what they mean by "you will see lava". Not what I expected, but very much enjoyed it. There were four other tourists on the tour with us, and the guide was excellent.

6:30pm Tabacon Hot Springs (requires voucher)
After the volcano, they drove us to a nearby resort: The Tabacon Grand Spa Resort. We played in the springs then had buffet dinner. I cannot begin to express how amazing and decadent these hot springs are. Not sure how I feel about it, but was very amazing. Quite an experience.

--- Feb 11th ---

9:30am Check-out and drive to Manuel Antonio (stopped for lunch so took about 7 hours)

Before we left, stopped for souvenirs at Galeria Aguas Verdes Alajuela. Lunch at a great little place called Rancho Ceci Alajuela where they have as little English as I have Spanish.

4:30pm Check in to Tres Banderas Hotel. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights)
This place is decent. It's run by a Polish guy. They have an open kitchen and a bar, but the cook and bartender seem very grouchy.

--- Feb 12th ---

7:25am (requires voucher) A bus picked us up and took us to Manuel Antonio National Park. We had a guide and a group of about 12 people. Definitely tour this park with a guide. You walk through the jungle basically on a dirt road. He sets up a scope on a tripod when he spots something (i.e. bat, tree frog) and you get a great view and can take great pictures through the scope with a standard pocket sized camera. Don't bother taking pictures of the monkeys if you seem them on this hike. There will be lots more, much closer near the beach at the end of the hike.

Spent the second half of the day body-surfing. Great day. But separated the key from the keychain, so later the car wouldn't start. The keychain contains an RFchip that has to be near the steering column or the car won't start. Good thing we had the cell phone.

Dinner at Ronny's Place (Resturante Mirador Mi Lupuntarenas). Amazing food. And would have an amazing view, but we went after dark.

--- Feb 13th ---

10:00am Check-out and drive to Playa del Coco. (about 7 hours)

Stopped for groceries at the Supermercado in Canas. Also got lost looking for a waterfall in Bagaces.

This was our rebellion from Cindy's bad advice. Instead of spending the night at a Best Western, we had a fabulous time at the Hotel Villas Del Sol in Playa del Coco. We just looked them up in the Lonely Planet book while driving toward Liberia and called with the rental cell phone (unlimited calling in Costa Rica) and booked for that night. (Here a little Spanish is necessary).

The guide book says that Playa del Coco is no great shakes. But I loved it.

--- Feb 14th ---

11:30am Arrive at Liberia and return the rental car at the airport.

Pay $26 x2 USD cash exit tax.

2:00pm American Airlines flight 2130 departs (food for purchase).

5:40pm Arrive in Miami (2hr 40min air time).

8:05pm American Airlines flight 646 departs.

11:14pm Arrive in Toronto at Terminal 3 (3hr 9min air time).

Go to the courtesy phone near the reservations board in Terminal 3 and select "Direct Flight Economy Park" and request a shuttle. Wait at the post they indicate.

--- Cost (in canadian dollars) ---

$790.69 x2 -- Flights Toronto to Liberia and back for 2 people (all taxes and fees included) via Expedia
$58.47 -- Park-and-Fly via Expedia
~$130 -- Travel doctor consultation and hepA shot each ($240 but was partially covered by benefits)
$10.31 $85.72 $13.45 $22.89 $14.43 $31.60 $6.49 $24.44 $9.20 $35.00 $4.72 -- Misc. supplies (like fuel to drive to toronto, sunblock, airport food, magazines)
$22.59 -- Photo for International Driver's Permit
$15.00 -- International Driver's Permit (from CAA, should have also got the photo here, cheaper) (note, this permit is not required, I was just being over cautious)
$72.00 $2,447.00 GAP
$120.26 for 50,000c cash
$505.20 for $400usd cash
$160.89 for additional insurance, both drivers covered and cell phone from Adobe Rent-A-Car
$123.04 for dinners and drinks at Hotel Arenal Paraiso
$76.61 for souvenirs at Galeria Aguas Verdes Alajuela
$12.11 for lunch (black egg soup) at Rancho Ceci Alajuela
$95.84 for dinner at Ronny's Place (Resturante Mirador Mi Lupuntarenas)
$70.18 for breakfast/dinner and drinks at Hotel Las Tres Banderas
$27.51 for groceries at the Supermercado in Canas
$82.54 for one night at the Hotel Villas Del Sol in Playa del Coco

Total: $5,858.87

Notes

Sunrise 5:30am, Sunset 5:30pm.

Costa Rica uses 120V 60Hz
Canada uses 110-120V 60Hz

..1 CAD = .....453 CRC
20 CAD = ..9,069 CRC
50 CAD = 22,673 CRC
75 CAD = 34,010 CRC

$0.50 (USD) - loaf of bread
$0.65 (USD) - litre of petrol
$0.75 (USD) - 1l of bottled water
$0.75 (USD) - small bottle of beer
$0.50 (USD) - cold coconut water
$8.00 (USD) - souvenir t-shirt

Hotel
Low US$5-15
Mid US$20-50
High US$55-80
Deluxe US$80+

Meals
Low US$3-10
Mid US$10-20
High US$20-25
Deluxe US$25+

While ATMs are widely available, there are no guarantees that your credit or debit cards will actually work in Latin America. Check with your bank. You should be aware that to purchase products or services on a credit card a fee of 5%-10% usually applies. Do not rely on credit or debit cards as your only source of money.

It is customary in Latin America to tip service providers such as waiters, at approximately 10%, depending on the service. Please note that in Costa Rica, a 23% charge is added on to almost every meal (13% tax, 10% tip). Further tipping for wait staff is appropriate in the case of excellent service.

Canadian Embassy

Travel Report for Costa Rica
- There is no Official Warning for this country.
- Leave copies of your passport identification page, itinerary and insurance policy with friends or family.
- Visitors should be vigilant at all times when travelling in the country due to high levels of crime.
- Petty crime such as pick pocketing, bag-snatching and theft from vehicles, buses and hotel rooms occurs regularly. Crimes against tourists are particularly common at airports, bus stations, ports, car rental lots, crowded tourist attractions and resort areas.
- Travellers should also be cautious in Tamarindo and Manuel Antonio.
- Beware of "good Samaritans" offering their help to change a flat tire, as they are often the cause of the situation.
- Remain vigilant in a stopped car (e.g. at traffic lights) and always drive with the doors locked and windows closed.
- Travellers should also avoid leaving their drinks or food unattended in bars and places of entertainment.
- Visitors to jungle areas should always be accompanied by an experienced guide.
- Few people outside major hotels, and very few public service providers (e.g. police, lawyers, hospitals) are able to communicate in English or French.
- Tourist Visa: Not required.
- The passport must be valid for at least thirty days from the date of arrival in Costa Rica.
- A tax of US$26 is charged upon departure.
- Canadians arrested or detained have the right to contact the responsible Canadian government office
- It is illegal to photograph official buildings. You should verify with local authorities before taking photos.
- Costa Rica has one of the highest accident rates in the world. Drivers and pedestrians should exercise great caution since traffic laws and speed limits are routinely ignored. Traffic signs are not sufficient. In some areas, potholes, sharp curves, landslides, and narrow or unpaved roads create dangerous road conditions, therefore be careful after dark, especially on rural roads.
- Terms and conditions of car rentals in Costa Rica are unlike most North American contracts. You should carefully review contracts and, in particular, be aware of the mandatory insurance liability coverage. Many driving situations can nullify insurance.
- Traffic enforcement is the responsibility of the Transit Police (222-9330 or 222-9245). Transit Officers often perform roadside inspection of vehicles and request the driver's permit, vehicle registration, and insurance documents. Traffic fines are not supposed to be collected on site. Travellers involved in driving accidents should call 911 to notify authorities of the accident. Do not move the vehicle until advised to do so by the police.
- The currency is the Costa Rican colón (CRC). To avoid complications, carry U.S. dollars (USD) or colónes. Street money changers often pass counterfeit U.S. dollars and local currency. Credit cards are widely accepted. Credit card fraud is a growing problem.
- It is extremely difficult to exchange Canadian currency and traveller's cheques in Costa Rica. Access to cash via ABMs is available in major cities. Only local currency can be withdrawn.
- Credit cards and debit cards should be used with caution due to the potential for fraud and other criminal activity.
- ABMs should be used during business hours inside a bank, supermarket, or large commercial building. Leave copies of your card numbers with a family member in case of emergency.
- An International Driving Permit is recommended. (I got this from the Kanata CAA Travel Store. They take the photo and issue the permit on the spot. ~30min. $15 for permit. $15 for photo.)

Costa Rica - SAN JOSÉ, Embassy of Canada
Address: La Sabana Executive Business Centre, Building No. 5, 3rd Floor, behind the Contraloría General de la República, San José
Postal Address: P.O. Box 351-1007, San José,

Tel.: 506 2242-4400
Emergency toll-free to Ottawa: 0-800-015-1161
Fax: 506 2242-4410
E-Mail: sjcra@international.gc.ca
Internet: http://www.costarica.gc.ca

Get Movies From The Ottawa Public Library

2009-11-30T20:08:00.005-05:00

It turns out that you can borrow videos from the Ottawa Public Library, and many of these are mainstream movies. So the library is like a free movie rental store. Sounds kind of cool.

First problem: none of the good ones are available. First solution: you can go to the website and request them. They'll eventually arrive at your local branch and you'll be notified by phone or email. You have about a week to pick them up and about a week to watch them. I think your number of requests are unlimited. So you can do what I did and simply request hundreds. With any luck, they'll show up at a rate of about a couple every week. You can engineer the rate at which they arrive by looking at the "position" they tell you when you request the movies or later by looking at the "position" column when looking at your account. But be warned, I think position doesn't take into account the number of copies they have. So if you're in position 20 but they have 10 copies then you should expect to receive it in about a week, not in 20*7 days.

Second problem: their website sucks. You can't easily browse, and you certainly can't browse by availability. You can search for a specific title. It's best to use thier: Search > Advanced Search > Format: DVDs. Here's a link.

You have to login in order to request movies. If you have a library card then I think you have a account. It's just your library card and your phone number (I know, super secure). But if that doesn't work for you, just stop by any branch and they'll set you up. Once you're logged in, you just search for a title, click on one of the results for details, and click the "Request next available copy" button.

Since I went to the trouble of mining their data, I thought I'd share. Here's a good portion of their pre-2009 movie list. I built this by searching for DVDs titled * (i.e. all of them, but I gave up after a while). For some of them (i.e. the ones I considered requesting) there are IMDB links. Go wild.

Probably Worth Looking At

Lilies
In the shadow of the Moon
Guess who's coming to dinner
Lake of fire
Stalag 17
All roads film festival collection 2
A room with a view
Pollock
The 11th hour
Six degrees could change the world
Up the Yangtze
I'm not there
The great debaters
Across the universe
The kite runner
American gangster
A collection of 2006 Academy Award nominated short films
Murder in the first
Shallow grave
Immortal beloved
Legends of the fall
Donnie Darko
The Shawshank redemption
The Da Vinci Code
Passchendaele
Stormchasers
Richard III
Cat on a hot tin roof
My dinner with André
Wildlife specials
Shake hands with the devil
Going upriver: the long war of John Kerry.
Word wars
The last Englishman
Manufacturing consent
Fearless
Boys don't cry
Quiz show
Bullets over Broadway
The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert
Becoming Jane
I remember Nelson
Human footprint -- National Geographic Channel.
The tenant of Wildfell Hall
Standard operating procedure
Terry Jones' Medieval lives
Ghost in the shell
Rob Roy
Les Misérables
The sound of music
The age of innocence
Swimming with sharks
The Buddha of suburbia
Man on wire
Body of war
A collection of 2007 Academy Award nominated short films
All Roads Film Festival: 5th anniversary collection
Control
Sergei Prokofiev's Peter & the wolf
Cranford
Chop shop
Sense and sensibility
Earth, the biography the story of our world
John Adams
Pulp fiction Fiction
The small back room
The fugitive
The small back room
Maya Lin: a strong clear vision
Africa: the Serengeti
In the heat of the night
Atonement
The Live's Of Others
John Adams (TV)
Earth, the biography (TV)
Foyle's war. Set 5
The private life of a masterpiece
Days that shook the world
The Crow
Stargate
Pulp fiction
Seven
The usual suspects
12 monkeys
The Englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain
Poldark
Apollo 13
Sharpe's rifles
Middlemarch
Like water for chocolate
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Reality bites
Timecop
Maverick
The client
Baraka
The remains of the day
The fly
The piano
The Secret of Roan Inish.
In the line of fire
Short cuts
Driving Miss Daisy
Bloody Sunday
Clear and present danger
Nell
Speed
The madness of King George
Heavenly creatures
Forrest Gump
Interview with the vampire
Tombstone
The birds
Nixon
A great day in Harlem
True lies
Before sunrise
All or nothing at all
My fair lady
Charade
In the name of the father
Shadowlands
The secret garden
Groundhog Day
The crying game
My own private Idaho
Wuthering Heights
The Blackheath poisonings
Merlin and the dragons
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago
Great expectations
The Fisher King
Oliver Twist
A Canterbury tale
Hands of a murderer : a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Dick Tracy
White Fang
Cleopatra
Pump up the volume
Madama Butterfly
The real Bruce Lee
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci
The agony and the ecstasy
Astro boy. The complete series
A tale of two cities
Sex, lies, and videotape
Dead poets society
The Unbearable lightness of being
The thin blue line
A handful of dust
Mississippi burning
Fury
The Jane Austen collection
The Maltese falcon
National Velvet
Good morning Vietnam
The sword in the stone
Alice in wonderland
Bleak House
Swiss family Robinson
The black cauldron
Anne of Green Gables
Killing fields
The Dead zone
Man on the moon
The boys from Brazil
The Longest day
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Romancing the stone
Dune
The velveteen rabbit
The dark crystal
Sweeney Todd : the demon barber of Fleet Street.
Fast times at Ridgemont High
The Scarlet Pimpernel
War and peace
The Man from Snowy River
Crazy/beautiful
The postman always rings twice
Shogun
The four feathers
The lion, the witch & the wardrobe : the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia.
White oleander
Cinderella
Big Red
Monster's ball
A knight's tale
And justice for all
Apocalypse now
Almost famous
Kramer vs. Kramer
The Patriot
All quiet on the western front
Hair
The King and I
Alien
The rainmaker
The real Bruce Lee
The day the earth stood still
Murder by numbers
The notebook
The fast and the furious
Donnie Darko
The believer
The Shining
Caddyshack
The Thomas Crown affair
Raging bull
The Blues brothers
Jack Frost
David Copperfield
Bright young things
Matchstick men
Spider-Man 2
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
The grapes of wrath
The last unicorn
Tuck everlasting
E.T. the extra-terrestrial
Spider-Man
The world according to Garp
The princess diaries
Interview with the vampire
Star trek II: the wrath of Khan.
Blade runner
Jumanji
Sling blade
Brideshead revisited
Sin City
Finding Forrester
The terminator
Lolita
Star trek III : the search for Spock.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Ghostbusters
Heaven can wait
Against all odds
A Christmas carol
The war of the worlds
Amadeus
Hamlet
Gandhi
A streetcar named desire
Octopussy
The night of the iguana
Never cry wolf
Scarface
The breakfast club
The color purple
The goonies
The pirates of Penzance
The Americanization of Emily
Name of the rose
Mean girls
Freaky Friday
Old Yeller
Ocean's eleven
Pretty in pink
Platoon
Dr. Strangelove, or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
Mary Poppins
Labyrinth
The Mosquito Coast
Top gun
It's a wonderful life
The color of money
Capote
George Orwell's 1984
Girl with a pearl earring
Lost in translation
Die hard
The Sixth sense
The land before time
Dead ringers
Rain man
A fish called Wanda
The Princess bride
Snow White
Rumpelstiltskin
Chicago
Fargo
Three men and a baby
Full metal jacket
The untouchables
Wall Street
Lethal weapon
Spaceballs
Planes, trains and automobiles
Titus Andronicus
The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The jungle book
Charlotte's web
Touching the void
Twelfth night
A room with a view
North and South : the complete collection.
Bend it like Beckham
Awakenings
GoodFellas
Charlie Wilson's war
Around the world in 80 days
Big
The little mermaid
Public enemy
Life of Brian
The adventures of Indiana Jones : the complete DVD movie collection.
Driving Miss Daisy
The abyss
Turner & Hooch
Back to the future the complete trilogy.
Tremors
King Lear
The fury
Patton
When Harry met Sally
Say anything
The fly ; The fly 2.
Henry V
Steel magnolias
Rosemary's baby
The fly
Monty Python's flying circus
Who framed Roger Rabbit
The Witches
Field of dreams
Batman
A.I.
Star Trek VI : the undiscovered country.
The little mermaid
101 Dalmatians
101 dalmatians II. Patch's London adventure
Wizard of Oz
Me and you and everyone we know
The paper bag princess
My fair lady
Peter Pan
Whale rider
The hunt for Red October
Dances with wolves
About a boy
Back to the future the complete trilogy.
The chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone
Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets
Ghost
Not without my daughter
The Godfather DVD collection
Home alone
The Rescuers Down Under
Misery
Pink Floyd, the wall
Arachnophobia
The Crow
Into the woods
Die hard 2 : die harder.
Night of the living dead
Scream
Terminator 2 : judgment day.
Aliens
Robin Hood : prince of thieves.
Dances with wolves
Amazing Grace
Naked lunch
The nature connection with David Suzuki
Cape Fear
He said, she said
City slickers
Hook
Courage under fire
JFK
Three kings
Reservoir dogs
Bridge on the River Kwai
The Doors
Arsenic and old lace
The perfect storm
Thelma & Louise
Patriot games
Beauty and the beast
Glengarry Glen Ross
Dracula
Spartacus
The best of Mr. Bean
Wallace & Gromit. Three amazing adventures
Schindler's list
The complete Beatrix Potter collection
Romeo & Juliet
Sleepless in Seattle
Black Hawk down
War and peace
Iron will
The essential Egoyan
Wayne's world 2
What's eating Gilbert Grape
The Three musketeers : [all for one, and one for all].
Annie Leibovitz
The tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny ; The tale of Mr. Tod.
The Firm
Kalifornia
Philadelphia
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Jurassic Park
Mrs. Doubtfire
Lord of the flies
Treasure Island
Four weddings and a funeral
Dragon, the Bruce Lee story
What's love got to do with it?
The nutcracker
The Pelican brief
Into the wild
Howards End
Aladdin
My cousin Vinny
The piano
White men can't jump
Malcolm X
A river runs through it
The last of the Mohicans
Hero
Scent of a woman
The great escape
Lethal weapon 4
A League of their own
Batman returns
The player
Baraka
Blood diamond
Jarhead
Shelley Duvall's Faerie tale theatre
Aftermath: population zero
Romulus, my father
The Buddha of suburbia
The Edwardians
Starting Out in the Evening
Long way down. Complete TV series
King Corn
Ballet shoes
The Deal
Housewife, 49
Sharkwater (TV)
Gulliver's travels (TV)
The legend of Tillamook's gold
Ganges
Love in the time of cholera
Darfur now
No country for old men
Pucca. Kung fu kisses
All about Eve
Life after people
Zodiac
Boy called Twist
Philby, Burgess and Maclean
Watership down
The furies
The Hudsucker proxy
Mr. Holland's opus
Leonard Maltin's animation favorites from the National Film Board of Canada
Raining stones
Much ado about nothing
A year in Provence
Heaven & earth
Six degrees of separation
Lip gloss
Diary of a worm
Cracker. Series two
The Windsors, a royal family
The Bostonians
Bizet's dream
Kurt & Courtney
Thumbelina
Queen of the East
Yanni live at the Acropolis
Whaledreamers
Around the world in 80 treasures
Faces of Earth
Mitzi Gaynor: razzle dazzle!
High noon
Reservation Road
Le peuple invisible
Jimmy Carter. Man from Plains
The memory keeper's daughter
Love and other dilemmas
Late fragment
The wild horse redemption
Surviving my mother
The secret of Santa Vittoria
The Strauss family
Elton John: tantrums and tiaras
The lost book of Nostradamus
American teen
The daydreamer
Love's unfolding dream
The Dick Francis thriller. Volume 2, The racing game
A walk to beautiful
African American lives 2
Abel's island
Country matters
Before the devil knows you're dead
Normal
Too tough to die, a tribute to Johnny Ramone
How the West was won
Journey to the center of the Earth
The stone angel
The Easter Bunny is comin' to town
Lonesome dove
Steal a pencil for me
Family motel
Into the unkown with Josh Bernstein.
Tortoise vs. hare
Finding Rin Tin Tin
Operation Valkyrie: the Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler.
The small back room
Recount
The last laugh
Spirit of the Marathon
The Jewish Americans.
King Priam.
The hands of Orlac
Tin man
The blue elephant
The rape of Europa
Surfwise
The business of being born
Moondance Alexander
I'm still here: real diaries of young people who lived during the Holocaust.
Missing
Sorrell and son
Shaun the sheep. Off the baa!
Lost stallions: the journey home.
Crusade: a march through time.
Justice League. New frontier
Steep
In the family
Alice upside down
Charlie and Lola. [Volume] eight, I am collecting a collection
Sand and sorrow: a new documentary about Darfur
Wind at my back: the complete third season.
Jesse Stone. Sea change
Jumanji
Get on the bus
Pocahontas
Victor, Victoria
Forget Paris
Cadfael. A morbid taste for bones
Brother Cadfael. The leper of St. Giles
Mighty Aphrodite
Waiting to exhale
Clueless
Restoration
Nixon
Mallrats
Heat
Something to talk about
Safe
Truman
How to make an American quilt
Goldeneye
Dolores Claiborne
Babe
Circle of friends
Anne Murray's classic Christmas
Leaving Las Vegas
Damage
The best bits of Mr. Bean
Casino
Get Shorty
To die for
The bridges of Madison County
Clerks
Dido & Aeneas
Sharpe's company
Angels in the outfield
Sharpe's enemy
Sharpe's eagle
Oliver's travels
Sharpe's battle
Stonewall
Kurt Cobain, about a son
Phantom museums: short films of the Quay brothers.
Scotland forever
Can you hear me thinking
Mysterious Britain
Double happiness
Liberation
The rector's wife
Omagh
Crumb
Ben-Hur
Wind in the willows
A wrinkle in time
Million dollar babies
The courtesans of Bombay
Who gets to call it art?
The assassination of Richard Nixon
Pulse
Mad hot ballroom
Brother minister
Hotel Rwanda
God sleeps in Rwanda

Probably Not Worth Looking At

Sharpe's gold
Sharpe's sword
Sharpe's honour
No quarter unledded
Madiba
Baseball -- a production of Florentine Films and WETA-TV
Einstein and the stars
Rainforest (Jungle)
Dinosaur -- BBC Wildvision -- writer: Brian Meehl.
Signs out of time: the story of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.
The miracle of life: pregnancy workout.
The Beatles anthology
Cadfael. Monk's hood
Central America; Pilot Film and TV Productions LTd. ; WETA.
Archibald Frisby -- a production of Great Plains National
The House of cards. v.2, To play the king
Richard Scarry's best sing-a-long Mother Goose video ever
The Mikado -- directed by Rodney Greenberg
L'animation Radio-Canada [enregistrement vidéo (DVD)] : un hommage Frédéric Back.
A brilliant madness
Discovering Italy -- written & directed by Patricia Franklin
The Beatles: the ultimate DVD collection.
Brother Cadfael. The leper of St. Giles
Baseball. Inning 1, Our game: [the 1840s-1900]
Baseball. Extra inning
Baseball. Inning 9, Home: [1970-1994]
The best of Mr. Bean. Volume 2
101 dalmatians II. Patch's London adventure -- Walt Disney Pictures
Mrs. Reinhardt
Jack Frost
Corner Gas. Season 5 (TV)
Pucca. Ninjas love noodles
The aristocats -- Walt Disney Pictures
101 Dalmatians -- Walt Disney Pictures
Clifford the big red dog. A big help!
Pingu. South Pole adventures
Water horse: legend of the deep.
The Osmonds: 50th anniversary reunion concert.
Franklin. Franklin's sailboat
Sharks: knights of the sea.
Be my valentine, Charlie Brown
Chrysanthemum: -- and more mouse mayhem.
Barack Obama
Human body: pushing the limits.
Saturday night live. SNL in the '80s: lost and found
Justice League. New frontier -- Warner Bros
It's bad for ya' -- George Carlin
Partner dancing 101. The Latin dances
Caillou. Caillou's winter wonders
The Beatrix Potter collection -- BBC Video
Sure shot Dombrowski: hockey's greatest two-way player.
It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
Goosebumps. Perfect school
The Who at Kilburn 1977
Goosebumps. One day at HorrorLand
Wind at my back: the complete fifth season.
Rush - snakes & arrows live
The Three Stooges collection. Volume two, 1937-1939
Wind at my back: the complete fourth season.
Jane and the dragon.
Struggle for hope: Six gestures
Tai chi: (6 forms, 6 easy lessons)
Michael the visitor
The greatest-- and the latest: Comic relief.
Les classiques de Frédéric Back
Medieval warfare
Snowshoes and solitude: a year in the Wabakimi wilderness.
Thomas & friends. Trust Thomas & other stories
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 5 1993-1994
Keepers of memory (director/producer, Eric Kabera.)
Mighty machines. Vol. 7
Mighty machines. Vol. 5
Mighty machines. Vol. 6
Mighty machines. Vol. 8
Yesterday in Rwanda
Faults & fixes with Nick Price
Mighty machines. Vol. 9
America and the Holocaust: deceit and indifference.
Breaking point: Quebec/Canada--the 1995 referendum.
All about fast trains
Auditioning (by Allan Miller)
Leonard Reed's shim sham shimmy
Garbage (Disney Educational Productions)
Vietnam (produced by Escapi New Media Studios)
The big plane trip (directed by William VanDerKloot)
Loreena McKennitt: no journey's end.
Mighty machines. Vol. 4
The big comfy couch. Are you ready for school?
Due South. Season two
Due South. Season one
Mighty machines. Vol. 3
Mighty machines. Vol. 1
Mighty machines. Vol. 2
Baseball. Inning 5, Shadow ball
Baseball. Inning 3, The faith of fifty million people
Baseball. Inning 2, Something like a war
The Three Stooges collection. Volume two, 1937-1939
Fun and funky fitness for kids
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Les classiques de Frédéric Back
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 5 1993-1994
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 4 1992-1993
UFO and paranormal phenomena. The mystery of life and death
Dinosaur & Prehistoric life.
Tchaikovsky: the tragic life of a musical genius.
Essential art house. Lord of the flies.
Healing cancer: from the inside out.
Mac computer basics
Bible code II: Apocalypse and beyond, finding our future.
Teens, sex & health: a comprehensive approach to sexual education.
CSNY/ Déjà vu
Snow angels -- Crossroads Films production
The first emperor -- directed by Brian Large
The secret of happiness -- Eckhart Tolle.
Are you ready to sing?
Incredible Britain
Ayurveda - for detox
Ayurveda - for stress relief
Classic archive: gyorgy cziffra
Exercise and cancer - inspirations, indications
Hollywood singing and dancing
Peter Grimes
Thomas & friends. The great discovery
All-access: an unprecedented look behind the scenes.
Growing up. Arctic
Hansel and Gretel -- EMI Classics
Growing up online
It's a plus: learn to add.
Puppytown. Growing up
The dancing princess
Mac computer applications
Activity TV. Puppets
Luck of the Loch Ness monster: a tale of picky eating.
Franklin and the secret club
Animalia
Beginning ukulele. Volume 1
Am I normal?: teens and emotional health.
Email for seniors: a step-by-step guide for the computer sky.
Goosebumps. A night in Terror Tower
A senior's guide to using a computer
Eloise's rawther unusual Halloween
Embracing aging: families facing change.
Goosebumps. Monster blood.
Big rig
Tec the Tractor: best friend on wheels.
Robson Arms: the complete third season.
Arthur. Big brother Binky
A mama for Owen
The royal diaries
Happy Valley: what's in your jello?
Goosebumps. The night of the living dummy
Do unto otters: a book about manners.
Hello numbers: learn to count.
One-on-one training with Jackie
That incredible state
Babywatch. The complete guide to having a baby for men
The source of the secret
Kid guides. Zoos
Solomon yoga & pilates
Finding hope in recovery: families living with addiction.
Casper the Friendly Ghost . Trick or treat
Flying: confessions of a free woman.
The Bible code: predicting Armageddon.
Goosebumps. The ghost next door
Go Diego go! Diego's Halloween
Daphne: the secret love life of Daphne du Maurier.
Stott pilates. Pilates for breast cancer rehab
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
The Backyardigans. Escape from fairytale village
Live to be 150: can you do it?
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Monarch and milkweed
Signing time. Series two, volume 13, Who has the frog?
Goosebumps. It came from beneath the sink
Baby boost 48 songs
You're not elected, Charlie Brown
Bebé goes shopping; Bebé goes to the beach.
Postcards from Buster. The case of the coin purloined
Who wants to be an entomologist?
Joy Division: the true story of the meteoric rise and fall of one of the most influential bands of our time.
Ports & pilots -- presented by North Carolina Public Television.
Kideosyncrasy. Volume 2, Getting the world in shape one kid at a time.
The Pyongyang concert -- EuroArts Music International
Bear dreams: learn to read.
Viva piéata. Volume 1 -- Montréal : Imavision
Berenstain Bears. Family and friendship
Drawing power! Safari animal drawing
Planet B-boy -- directed and produced by Benson Lee.
Okay, I bought a Mac! Now what?
Spooktacular new adventures of Casper. Vol. 2
Jazz class for kids
Sneaker confidential
Sunrise Earth: sunrises of the ancient world. -- Discovery Channel
Interview the best -- S.n.
Quick licks for guitar: fast classic metal. -- Mel Bay
Quick licks for guitar: up tempo blues shuffle. -- Mel Bay
Drumsense. Volume 1 -- Colin Woolway.
Drumsense. Volume 2 -- Colin Woolway.
Affairs of the heart. Series one, Volume 1-2: classic tales of love and loss based on the fiction of Heny James.
Make way for ducklings: and more Robert McCloskey stories.
Gunnin' for that #1 spot
Woodcarving with Chris Pye
Steps4kids handwriting
Steps4kids cursive writing
SPI: successful partnership investigation.
Activity TV. Paper airplanes
Edward the King -- written by David Butler and John Gorrie
Garrett's gift -- written by Karyn Parsons
Big boats & busy harbors -- Fred Levine Productions : Little Hardhats
Talespinners 1 & 2 -- National Film Board
Bear friends: learn to read. -- an LDJ Production
Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King
Dinky Dog -- the complete series -- A Hanna Barbera Pty Production -- 2008
Kid guides. Museums -- Echo Entertainment
Incidents in the life of a slave girl [a DVD study guide] Distributed by Recorded Books
Phonics 4 babies. Colors & counting -- Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2008.
South Central Farm: oasis in a concrete desert.
The battle of the bag -- CBC Learning, 2008.
Crazy for life: a true story in one act. -- written and performed by Victoria Maxwell.
Audubon videoguide to butterflies -- Audubon Society, 2008
Men get depression -- PBS, 2008.
Jack London's Call of the wild, 2008, c2000.
Tchaikovsky: the tragic life of a musical genius. -- BBC, written by Matthew Whiteman and Suzy Klein.
Treasures of America's national parks -- by Bellevue Entertainment
It's movie time -- National Geographic
Max & Ruby. Perfect pumpkin -- Nickleodeon
Fidel Castro: a life of revolution. -- CBC, written and directed by Terence McKenna.
Zappa plays Zappa -- directed and produced by Pierre & Francois Lamoureux.
Java jive -- producer, Selwyn Jacob ; director, David Ozier.
Inspector Gadget: big little problems. -- 20th Century Fox
Computer comfort: Help for the Computer Shy
Internet for seniors: a step-by-step guide for the computer shy.
How to use a Mac: a guide for Windows computer users.
How to surf the web on your Mac computer: a step-by-step guide for using the apple safari web browser.
Anger: myths and truths about the emotion. -- ABC News
Depression: out of the shadows. -- PBS Home Video
Transformation: the life and legacy of Werner Erhard. -- directed by Robyn Symon.
All you need is love -- London Weekend Television, directed by Tony Palmer.
Derivatives of logarithms -- TMW, 2008
Be the change -- producer and director, David Chernushenko. Ottawa
Madeline. We're off to Africa -- 20th Century Fox, 2008.
I'm an animal Vol. 1 -- Vivendi Visual
The greatest and the latest: Comic relief. -- directed by Billy Crystal
Comedy Central salutes George Carlin
The Hardly Boys in Hardly gold -- written and directed by William Wegman.
Alphabet soup: learn the letters. -- an LDJ Production
Signing time. Series two, volume 11, Once upon a time -- Two Little Hands Productions
Signing time. Series two, volume 12, Box of crayons -- Two Little Hands Productions
Buddy Guy, guitar lessons -- Koch
Gentle vinyasa yoga: mystical desert mist beginner & intermediate. -- MyYogaVideo.com
Yoga: gentle practice. -- Real Bodywork
John McCain -- produced and written by Deirdre O'Hearn.
Mustard pancakes. Are you ready to sing? -- Distributed by Vivendi Visual Entertainment
Yoga body sculpt: perfect yoga poses to tone & sculpt your entire body. -- Anchor Bay
Latin rhythms fat blasting dance -- Anchor Bay
Soup stories: how letters become words. -- an LDJ Production
Voyage to the Bunny Planet -- Weston Woods Studios, Inc.
Strobist lighting seminar -- Midwest Photo Exchange
Solving integrals -- TMW
Integration by substitution -- TMW
Calculating volume with integrals -- TMW
Derivatives and integrals of exponentials -- TMW
Integration by parts -- TMW
Integration by trig substitution -- TMW
Improper integrals -- TMW
Hiya, kids!!: a 50's Saturday morning.
Online dating for the computer shy
Wings over Canada. 10th Anniversary season
Yoga: core cross train.
The medicated child
Mapping stem cell research: terra incognita
The four-winged dinosaur
Company: [a musical comedy].
Beyond Beijing: exploring China's cities.
Kid guides. Aquariums
The calculus tutor. Volume 3, Differentiation formulas
Car of the future: engineering for the environment.
Bush's war
Max & Ruby. Max's present
Red, white and brown
Stott pilates. Volume 1, Pilates with props
The country wife
Christmas tapestry
Warnings from the ice
Raffi renaissance
All stars of rock guitar
Musician
More Mac computer basics
United Feature Syndicate, Inc. and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates
Slippin': ten years with the Bloods.
Cinderella : a dance fantasy.
Body & soul
Alice in Wonderland : a dance fantasy.
Madeline. Meet me in Paris
One dead Indian : the story of Dudley George and Ipperwash.
The complete adventures of Cubby Bear
Dizzy Gillespie : Live in '58 & '70.
Escape to Canada
Raised to be heroes
Ripples cross
Destination Ottawa
Zoo TV : live from Sydney.
I know I'm not alone : [a musician's search for the human cost of war].
Eternal enemies, lions and hyenas
Breaking point : Quebec/Canada--the 1995 referendum.
Hamas, behind the mask
Birth = La naissance.
Growing up wild
Combination platter
Brother Bear
The Shakespeare collection
Bush's brain
The hunting of the president : the ten-year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton.
Angels in America
New York
The big comfy couch. Wait your turn, and Fancy dancer
Bopha!
Great adaptations
N is a number : a portrait of Paul Erdos.
Century of warfare
Cracker. Series one,
Glenn Gould collection
Israel : a nation is born.
This boy's life
Linnea in Monet's garden
Snowy
The big comfy couch. Comfy & joy, and Jump for Joy
The extra-special substitute teacher
The Rainy day adventure
Raffi in concert
L'animation à Radio-Canada [enregistrement vidéo (DVD)] : un hommage à Frédéric Back.
Richard Scarry's best busy people video ever
Toronto Blue Jays : 1992, Atlanta Braves ; 1993, Philadelphia Phillies ; presented by Major League Baseball Productions.
Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, or The Witch's curse [videorecording].
Jeeves & Wooster. The complete fourth season
The tale of two bad mice and Johnny Town-Mouse ; The tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher ; The tailor of Gloucester.
Sabrina
Discovering Egypt
Funny face
Porgy and Bess
Jazz. Episode seven, Dedicated to chaos
Jesus of Nazareth
Gettysburg
Jazz. Episode eight, Risk
Rudy
Calendar
The Audrey Hepburn story
Bell, book and candle
The war room
Dieppe
A night to remember
Stalingrad
Dave
Homeward bound : the incredible journey.
The Holiday Collection
Sacred fire : live in Mexico.
The greatest-- and the latest : Comic relief.
The Noël Coward collection
Rowan Atkinson live!
Adam Bede
The Henrik Ibsen collection
The call of the wild
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 4 1992-1993
Destination Canadian Rockies
The boys of St. Vincent
The camomile lawn
The Life & times of Allen Ginsberg
Shelley Duvall's Tall tales & legends. John Henry
Speaking of courage
Never so few
McQ
Bad day at Black Rock
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 3 1991-1992
David Leadbetter golf instruction. Taking it to the course
An ungentlemanly act
Shakespeare : the animated tales.
The original television Christmas classics
Of mice and men = Des souris et des hommes.
Aileen Wuornos : the selling of a serial killer, the 1992 interviews.
Eloise at Christmastime = Éloïse fête noël.
Porco Rosso
Flipper
Two brothers = Deux frères.
Road to the presidency : inside the Clinton campaign.
O pioneers!
ABC's
Eloise at the Plaza
Burned bridge
The inventors' guide to making your brainstorm bankable : how to protect and market your invention.
Mastering woodworking machines
Mastering your bandsaw
In the shadow of the Reich
Bringing down a dictator
The Iceman : confessions of a Mafia hitman.
The Sarah plain & tall collection
Momentum
Toronto Blue Jays : 1992, Atlanta Braves ; 1993, Philadelphia Phillies ; presented by Major League Baseball Productions.
Salmonberries
Mr. Saturday Night
The tale of the Flopsy Bunnies & Mrs. Tittlemouse : The tale of Pigling Bland.
The adjuster = L'expert en sinistres.
Haxan ; witchcraft through the ages.
Jeeves & Wooster. The complete third season
Citizen Cohn
Shadows and fog
Blue sky
Fires of Kuwait
Agatha Christie's Poirot. Death in the clouds
Salvador
The magnificent seven
Ferngully, the last rainforest
Aromatherapy : [learn the all-natural way to relieve stress and enliven your senses].
The eagle has landed
Te Deum
Unforgiven
Bob Roberts
The best years of our lives
The old man and the sea
We are traffic! ; Return of the scorcher.
School ties
Agatha Christie's Poirot. The ABC murders
The Discoverers
The perfect husband
Orlando
Chaplin
Passion fish
Mr. Saturday Night
Damage
Midnight express
Tropical rainforest
Death becomes her
The Birth of a nation
Dora the Explorer. Dora and the 3 little pigs [videorecording].
The Edwardians
Devices and desires
The best of Mr. Bean. Volume 2
Poisoned by polonium : the Litvinenko file.
My father's angel = L'ange gardien de mon père.
Can you hear me thinking
Diamonds of war. Africa's blood diamonds
Living and dying with muscular dystrophy
Popmart : live from Mexico City.
Elvis Costello live : a case for song.
Free cinema
Bon Jovi. Lost highway: the concert
The Noël Coward collection
Absolute hell : a rose-coloured spectacle.
Six days in June : the war that redefined the Middle East.
The McCartney years
Anatomy of a script.. #6, Tom Schulman
Coney Island
Zoo TV : live from Sydney.
Father Christmas
Kissology. Vol. 2, 1978-1991 : the ultimate Kiss collection.
Destination British Columbia
Another road home
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 3 1991-1992
Madeline's Christmas = Le No?l de Madeline ; plus, Madeline and one other story.
Letter from Wingfield farm
The Short game
Changes
The ballad of the sad café
Daddy
The Edward R. Murrow collection
Bruce Springsteen in concert : MTV plugged.
The Doobie Brothers, Rockin' down the highway : the wildlife concert.
Class action = Confrontation ? la barre.
Crosby, Stills & Nash : the acoustic concert.
The Commitments
Uncovered : the whole truth about the Iraq War.
Peter Gabriel : play : the videos.
Weezer, video capture device : treasures from the vault 1991-2002.
The very best of Cher : the video hits collection.
Simply Red, Stars
A murder of quality
Barbra Streisand : the concert.
In America
Little house on the prairie. Season 4
Sarah McLachlan : afterglow live.
The Manchurian candidate = Candidat mandchou.
No quarter unledded
Oscar Peterson : a night in Vienna / produced by Scott Morin ; concert co-produced by Universal Music Canada and ORF.
Eric Clapton : Crossroads Guitar Festival.
Slacker
A perfect hero
Great adaptations
Little house on the prairie. Season 5
The Kids in the Hall. complete season 2, 1990-1991
Prime suspect 1
Phil Collins live and loose in Paris
Peter Gabriel secret world live
VH1 Storytellers. Alanis Morissette
Fool's gold : [the story of the Brink's-Mat robbery].
Phonics video tutor. Level 1
Nirvana nevermind
Turning projects
Live from Baghdad
AC/DC live at Donington
VH1 Storytellers. Sarah McLachlan
Phonics video tutor. Level 2
Diana Krall live in Paris
The Civil War
Little house on the prairie
Little house on the prairie. The pilot : the premiere movie.
Little house on the prairie. Season 1
Little house on the prairie. Season 2
Little house on the prairie. Season 3
Click, clack, moo, cows that type : and more fun on the farm.
Spirits of Havana : with Jane Bunnett.
White room = Le secret de la chambre claire.
The Canadian history series, 1939-2000
The best of 1990-2000
Agatha Christie's Poirot. Collector's set 4
Blue sky
Little man Tate
Indian runner
Barbara Taylor Bradford's to be the best [videorecording DVD].
Barbara Taylor Bradford's a woman of substance trilogy
Fires of Kuwait
Tom Jones
The Prince of Tides
Discovering Greece
Red Rocks live : Neil Young, friends & relatives.
Silver & gold
Kiri Te Kanawa : home & afar.
A passage to India
Beastie Boys video anthology
Santana : supernatural live : an evening with Carlos Santana and friends.
Appalachian journey : live in concert.
You're the one : in concert.
What about Bob?
Jazz. Episode ten, A masterpiece by midnight
Bon Jovi : the Crush Tour.
Butterfield 8
All the way : a decade of song and video.
Symphony no. 9
Grand Canyon
Lost horizon
Incident at Oglala
When it was a game
Mr. Deeds goes to town
Yanni live at the Acropolis
It happened one night
Duke Ellington's sacred concerts
Father of the bride
Mr. Smith goes to Washington
Madonna : truth or dare.
The Paris concert for Amnesty International : the struggle continues-.
Where angels fear to tread
The Snowman ; and, Father Christmas.
Live at the Beacon Theatre / James Taylor.
L.A. story
Antarctica : an adventure of a different nature.
Black robe
Ring of fire
Meet John Doe
It's a wonderful life = La vie est belle.
Summertime
High lonesome : the story of bluegrass music.
Sacred fire : live in Mexico.
Dad's Army
Three men and a little lady
Intolerance
Royal wedding
Francis Albert Sinatra does his thing
Sadako and the thousand paper cranes = Une enfant d'Hiroshima.
Eric Clapton unplugged
The greatest-- and the latest : Comic relief.
The Edwardians
Zappa plays Zappa
The small back room
James Last : live in Berlin.
Night of the fox
Gowan : live in concert.
Echoes that remain
49th parallel
Kissology. Vol. 2, 1978-1991 : the ultimate Kiss collection.
Art Blakey & the Jazz messengers : live in '58.
Cuba : the accidental revolution.
Portrait of a marriage
Africa : Namibian ecosystem.
David Leadbetter golf instruction. The swing
Fine things
The complete thin man collection
An angel at my table : a trilogy.
Kaleidoscope
Live Aid
Peter Gabriel : play : the videos.
Sanding and finishing hardwood floors
Hamlet
The very best of Cher : the video hits collection.
Breaker Morant

British Columbia (Sept. 5th-13th, 2008)

2009-11-29T13:25:00.006-05:00

The west coast is a great place to visit. We flew into Vancouver, rented a car, drove up Vancouver Island, spent most of our time with friends at Powell River, and drove back down the main-land coast. I really enjoyed Vancouver, Victoria, and Powell River, and I hope to go back soon. Here's a google map of our trip.

Flights where expensive (two people, round-trip, $1552.60), but direct. I'm told that if you book well in advance and your schedule is flexible, then you can get a much better price.

AC189 Ottawa (YOW) Friday September 5th 5:00pm
to Vancouver (YVR) arrive at 7:15pm - Terminal M
Duration: 5hr15

AC138 Vancouver (YVR) Saturday September 13th 4:35pm - Terminal M
to Ottawa (YOW) arrive at midnight
Duration: 4hr32

Resources

Local Flights
Vancouver (YVR) to Powell River, $240, two adults, one-way.
They're not cheap, but they are frequent, and you get a discount if you book in advance. If you drive, then you have to take two ferries to get to Powell River, so you're sort of a slave to their schedule. Choose flights if time is your scarce resource. Choose a rental car if you want to see more of the region.

Shuttle Bus
Vancouver (YVR) to Victoria downtown.
$91, two adults, one-way (this includes the ferry).

Local Bus
- Route # 620 connects to the BC Ferries in Tsawwassen for $5, two adults, one-way
- Get on at # 58058 AIRPORT STN BAY 2 -- 8:03pm
- Get off at # 56669 TSAWWASSEN FERRY TERMINAL -- 8:40pm

Ferries
I found the ferries to be very timely and efficient. They sell food on-board, but it's at a considerable mark-up. And they seem to be universally in out-of-the-way locations. So if you think you're going to stop to pickup some food before-hand, do it well before-hand. Once you get to the ferry terminal, there'll be nothing else around.

Comox to Powel River Ferry
- Monday Sept. 8th, 7:15pm-8:35pm, $64.10, two adults+car, one-way
- (also 10:10am-12:00pm and 3:15pm-5:15pm)
- Comox Parking: Robbins Parking Lot #398: $4/24hours
- Could leave the car here, and go back the way we came
Else Drive: Landing to Bruce & Tracy's - 9 minutes - Google Map

Car Rental
There is a Budget car rental at the airport. They call the location VANCOUVER, BC-APO (YVR). The actual location is 3880 Grant McConachie Way, Vancouver, phone: 604-668-7000. You can get an intermediate car for $330, all week, unlimited km. I've found that car rental agencies universally try to sell you extra insurance. I'm convinced this is a waste of money. I phoned my insurance company before-hand and they confirmed that I'm covered on a rental car just the same as I'm covered on my normal car. And don't accept the "they fuel it up" feature. Unlike YYZ, this location has an obvious, reasonably priced gas station on your way to the rental drop-off. It's easy to re-fuel it yourself. Further note that when I picked up the car, I told the guy that my Visa is supposed to give me some kind of bonus when renting from Budget. I thought this would be a discount, but it's actually an upgrade, so I ended up renting a Luxury vehicle. It sounded fishy to me so I made him tell me "the total", which was just a bit higher than the $330 I'd expected. But he was giving me the total before taxes (which are considerable), so I ended up paying $534.70. Hereafter, I'll be clear that when I say "total" I mean "all the money I'm going to be expected to pay". It's a scam if you ask me.

Friday Sept. 5th
2:30pm - Leave Kanata
5pm - AC189 departs for Vancouver (round-trip $1552.60, pre-paid)
7:15pm - Arrive in Vancouver - Terminal M
8pm - Pickup car at airport (not paid, ~$325)
Airport To Lucille - 21 minutes - Google Map
8:30pm - Arrive at Lucille's place. ($35 cash, not paid)
At this point we were pretty tired, but walked down Fraser St. a few blocks to grab some Thai food before bed.

Saturday Sept. 6th
Explore Vancouver, Map of Downtown
Lucille's to Downtown - 15 minutes - Google Map
We had breakfast at a great place called Steamrollers.
Downtown to the Aquarium at Stanley Park (we didn't actually go here) - 7 minutes - Google Map
Stanley Park to Capilano Suspension Bridge (neat place, but kind of like disney land, and not cheap) - 32 minutes - Google Map
We had extra time, so we went for a hike up the mountains at Lynn Headwaters, which was fantastic.
Downtown to Ferry - 42 minutes - Google Map
5:30pm - Reservation Expires (confirmation number 54243713-2)
6:00pm - Ferry departs ($93.15, partly pre-paid)
7:35pm - Arrive at Swartz Bay
Swartz Bay To Victoria - 33 minutes - Google Map
8:30pm - Arrive at Evelyn & Nansen's.

Sunday Sept. 7th
To Galloping Goose Trail - 8 minutes - Google Map
To Inner Harbour - 21 minutes - Google Map
Visit Sandy/Climbing beaches, a 10 minute walk from their house.
Craigdarroch Castle, $12/adult daily (we didn't actually go here) Google Map
The Fairmont Empress (we didn't actually go here) Google Map

Monday Sept. 8th
Victoria to Englishman Falls - 2 hours 35 minutes - Google Map
Englishman Falls to Coombs - 12 minutes - Google Map
Coombs to Qualicum Falls (we didn't actually go here) - 9 minutes - Google Map
Qualicum Falls to Cathedral Grove - 8 minutes - Google Map
Cathedral Grove to Comox - 1 hour 12 minutes - Google Map
6:15pm - Arrive at Ferry.
7:15pm - Ferry leaves for Powell River
8:35pm - Arrive in Powell River
Powell River to Bruce's House - 9 minutes - Google Map

Tuesday Sept. 9th
Went in Bruce's big boat up Powell lake from Cranberry to the far end.
Did some fishing and explored a sand cave.

Wednesday Sept. 10th
Rented Kayaks at Alpha Dive and Kayak.
Paddled around Inland lake, had lunch on an island.
Picked tonnes of black berries.

Thursday Sept. 11th
Went out on the ocean in Bruce's big boat.
Dropped some Crab Traps and did some trolling and jigging.
Went up the coast to The Historic Lund Hotel and had lunch.
Went to Harwood Island, saw sea lions and some caves.

Friday Sept. 12th
Went cliff jumping off a waterfall in a little river.
Saw a salmon spawning ground.
Ate some raw oysters from the ocean shore.
Had a dinner party.

Saturday Sept. 13th
Powell River to Saltery Bay - 54 minutes - Google Map
Saltery Bay to Earl's Cove
5:35am to 6:25am
7:25am to 8:15am
9:25am to 10:15am -- preferred
Earl's Cove to Langdale - 1 hour, 13 minutes - Google Map
Langdale to Horseshoe Bay
10:20am to 11:00am
12:20pm to 1:00pm -- preferred
2:30pm to 3:10pm
Before heading back to the airport, we walked a bit around Vancouver downtown, and I had the best California roll of my life (with black rice).
Horseshoe Bay to Airport - 42 minutes - Google Map
3:00pm - Return rental car
4:35pm - AC138 (Terminal M) departs for Ottawa
Midnight - Arrive in Ottawa

Things To Do In Montreal

2009-11-28T08:09:00.003-05:00

Best way to get downtown - follow directions to bell centre:
- Take HWY-417 E
- Turns into HWY 40 (once highway becomes raised, stay in left lane.. you'll want to exit soon)
- Take HWY 15 S (get into left lane)
- Take Aut. Ville Marie which is HWY 720
- Exit on Rue Guy
- lots of parking around... you should be right at the Bell centre, 2 block north to St Catherine... everything in walking distance

Here's a google map.

Bob & Mariko's Bed & Breakfast

Great place. Great hosts. Great price.
3458 Avenue Laval (At Sherbrooke St.)
Have a look at google's street view. They have four front doors, each with a different street number (which was confusing for me).

Canadian Centre For Architecture

1920 Rue Baile
This is a greeat museum.

Simons (the best department store in the world)
977 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest

Schwartz's World Famous Smoked Meat
3895 St Laurent
(everyone talks about this but I didn't think it was that big a deal)

And here's a bunch of stuff that's been suggested to me that I haven't done yet.

Old Montreal
(Bleury St east to St-Denis St)
(St-Antoine St south to the St Lawrence Rive)

Planetarium
1000 rue Saint-Jacques Ouest

St Viateur's Bagels
263 St. Viateur West
1127 Mont. Royal East

Marché Bonsecours (interesting artisan market)
350 rue St-Paul

Biodome
Next to Stade Olympique
4777 av. Pierre-de-Coubertin

Shopping - St Catherine street (start at Bell Center, walk east)
Lots of other stuff (Olympic village...)

Getting To/Around Burlington

2009-11-27T09:53:00.002-05:00

You can fly with WestJet from Ottawa (YOW) to Toronto (YYZ) for a not-too-terrible rate.
Taxi from YYZ to Long Branch GO Station, $31 flat rate.
7:01pm GO Train to Burlington GO Station, arrive at 7:38pm.

Here's a google map that has some relevant transit interchanges.

Inter-terminal bus access between Terminals 1 and 3:
Terminal 3 pickup/drop-off location: Departures Level, column 21
Terminal 1 pickup/drop-off location: Departures Level, column 27

TTC 192 Airport Rocket (Bus)
from Terminal 1
6:12, 6:24, 6:36, 6:48
to Kipling Station
~20min duration

TTC 123 Shorncliffe (Bus)
from Kipling Station (123[red] or 123c[brown])
6:26, 6:39, 6:51
to Long Branch Station
~20min duration

Lakeshore West GO Train (Westbound)
from Long Branch GO Station
7:01, 8:01
to Burlington GO Station
37min duration

Here's Taxis & Limousines information from YYZ, and their price map.

ViaRail Ottawa-Toronto is okay.
Greyhound Ottawa-Burlington is 9 hours.

Monty Hall Problem and Intuitive Solutions

2009-11-26T16:27:00.002-05:00

Classical Problem

There are three doors. Two hide nothing. One hides a car. In phase 1, you pick a door. Monty (knowing where the car is) opens a door that does not hide a car and that you did not pick. In phase 2, you may stay with your chosen door (StayStrategy) or you may change your guess to the one remaining door (SwapStrategy). If you've picked the door that hides the car, you win the car.

The Truth

In the Classical Monty Hall problem, the StayStrategy succeeds with 1/3 probability, and the SwapStrategy succeeds with 2/3 probability.

Hand Wavy Justification

Imagine that there are 100 doors. You choose one. Knowing where the car is, Monty Hall opens 98 doors (other than your pick) that don't have the car. It is intuitively clear that your door has low probability of success, while the swap door has high probability of success.

Modified Problem

Imagine the same game, except Monty Hall doesn't know where the car is. After you pick a door in phase 1, he randomly reveals one of the remaining two doors. Now consider the situation where (by chance) he does not reveal the car. Should you stay or swap? Note: this problem only considers the situation when Monty Hall (by chance) has opened a door that does not hide the car.

The Truth

In the Modified Monty Hall problem, the StayStrategy succeeds with 1/2 probability, and the SwapStrategy succeeds with 1/2 probability.

A False Hand Wavy Argument

Imagine that there are 100 doors. You choose one. Not knowing where the car is, Monty Hall opens 98 doors (other than your pick) that don't have the car. This situation is highly unlikely, but possible. Originally, you knew that your door had a 1/100 probability of hiding the car, so it must reasonably be true that all the other doors combined had a 99/100 probability of hiding the car, and since they have been narrowed to one selection, the swap door must have a higher probability of success.

Proof For The Classical Problem

The Classical Monty Hall problem is exactly equivalent to the following problem. You pick a door with a 1/3 probability of success. There is a 2/3 probability that one of the other two doors hides the car. You are given the option of opening and winning the contents of just your selected door (StayStrategy) or both the other doors (SwapStrategy). Because Monty Hall never reveals the car, the (SwapStrategy) is exactly equivalent to having both the other doors, and therefore 2/3 probability of success. It is important to remember that there are only two possible outcomes to this game: the stay door hid the car or the swap door hid the car. The Monty door never hides the car. This proof is particularly evident when examining the source code for a simulation of the game. In the simulation it is not necessary to determine which door Monty reveals. All you need to do is randomly generate a car on [1..3] and randomly generate a guess on [1..3]. If the car equals the guess then the (StayStrategy) wins, otherwise the (SwapStrategy) wins.

Proof For The Modified Problem

The Modified Monty Hall problem is actually three problems considered in isolation. It is true that your original pick has 1/3 probability of success. It is true that Monty Hall is not allowed to reveal your door. This does not change the fact that the door Monty Hall picks has a 1/3 probability of hiding the car. Since neither your nor Monty have knowledge of which door hides the car, regardless of the picks, each door has a 1/3 probability of hiding the car. Hence in the millions of times that the game is played, 1/3 of the games end with Monty Hall accidentally revealing the car. In the remaining 2/3 of the games played there is a 50% probability that the (StayStrategy) wins, and a 50% probability that the (SwapStrategy) wins. That is to say that 1/3 of all games end with Monty Hall accidentally revealing the car, 1/3 of all games end with your original pick hiding the car, and 1/3 of all games end with the remaining door (picked by neither you nor Monty) hiding the car.

If You Don't Believe Me

Java Simulation Source Code
Java Simulation Executable Jar File
Java Simulation Results

Sundance Balloons In Ottawa (May 12th 2009)

2009-11-25T08:34:00.005-05:00

On May 12th 2009 we flew in a Balloon over Ottawa. It was a great experience. I booked with Sundance Balloons by calling 613-247-8277 and chatting with a friendly agent about what was involved, when they were available and how to reserve a spot. They have a pretty good website where you can do it all yourself. It's a two part process. First you pay for vouchers that give you the right to fly. Then you use the code from the vouchers to schedule a flight. This is because ballooning is very weather dependant and you might have to re-schedule several times.

I went with my wife and my dad and handled the booking. You need lots of info to fill out the forms, like date of birth and weight (which is reasonable considering that it's a balloon ride). They tell you to bring a hat -- advice which I ignored. I thought they were concerned about the sun. Nope. It's the giant fire three feet from your head. Believe me: bring a hat.

It's not cheap, $220 per person, but I had a great time. Our balloonist was Frank, and he and the crew were spectacular. We took off from Carleton University and followed roughly this route. The take off and landing are the most existing part. While you're up there you move with the wind, so it is very calm, and there are great views. To spice things up, Frank lowered the balloon once we were outside the city so that I could actually touch the tree tops. We'd been up for quite a while and sunset was approaching when Frank decided that he'd be able to set down in the middle of an Orleans soccer field. We came in as close as he could over a power line and landed with two bounces. A guy from the chase vehicle was already there when we touched down and grabbed on as we bounced to add weight and help us land. It was lots of fun.

How To Use Picasa

2009-11-22T18:19:00.010-05:00

You'd think that a Google product wouldn't need instructions, but Picasa seems to be the exception. Have a look at the help fourms and you'll find a lot of angry customers. So, having wasted many hours messing with Picasa, I've decided to put together a list of tips to help others and probably also myself in the future.

It's been my experience that when you let software like iTunes or Picasa manage your files, they do a bad job. So I don't let Picasa watch my folders and I archive all my images (and music) to an external drive (which is most of the time read-only). I use a date-by-alphabetic folder structure as shown below.

Organizing by year and prefixing by numbers as you add sets of images lets you [ View > Folder View > Sort By Name ] and still have your sets of images sorted by date. This is valueable if you have many old images or scans that don't have correct "date picture taken" tags embedded in the picture files.

I would love to find a piece of software that given a folder will open all images, sorted by name alphabetically and embed date/time information sequentially, starting at a given date/time. But this folder structure lets me live without it.

I add files to Picasa via the following procedure.

[1] - Organize new images into a date-by-alphabetic folder structure and move them to the Picasa folder on the external drive.

[2] - Open Picasa [ Tools > Folder Manager ]. Only the Picasa folder structure should be marked "Scan Once" (the check mark). Everything else should be marked "Remove From Picasa" (the red x).

[3] - Select the root folder (in my case "images") and select "Remove From Picasa" then select "Scan Once" then click OK. That procedure seems counter-intuitive, but it has the effect of asking Picasa to re-scan your folder structure and pickup the new images you just added.

Having done this much, Picasa can serve as a handy tool to view your archived images. But you probably want to organize images into groups based on people and occasions. Albums are a handy tool for this. They are basically playlists of images. The fact is that you I take more photos then are worth looking at, but with cheap storage there's no reason to delete anything unless it's truely hideous. Before adding files to Picasa, I go though them, delete any that are awful and rotate the sideways images (see below for why to not let Picasa do your edits). Having added a new folder to Picasa, you can [ right-click > Select All Pictures ] and then use the blue icon near the bottom left of the screen to create a new Album.

Having created a new album of all the new images from your folder, you can then select the album, double-click the first image, and remove images from the album with the delete key. This just delets them from your album, not your disk and is a fast way trim down the number of files so that your friends and famaily won't have to suffer through too many pictures.

Warning: I've read that if you open Picasa while your external hard-drive is unplugged then all your albums will be toast. Protect yourself against this and other disasters by backing up the album PAL files. Your Picasa has a name. Mine is named b8ebd58cc0bbd85077b3521f7a54046a, and all my albums live in that folder. Each album has a name and lives in a file. For example: 1c6f0c62952b69bd4ddbc981aaa63b92.pal

Here's how to manually create an album.

[1] - In Picasa, select an image then add it to a new album, such that you've created an album with just that image.
[2] - Close Picasa.
[3] - Go to your albums folder (mine is b8ebd58cc0bbd85077b3521f7a54046a) and find the smallest PAL file. This is your new album. Open it in wordpad. Mine is named 696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68841.pal and looks like this:

<picasa2album>
<DBID>b8ebd58cc0bbd85077b3521f7a54046a</DBID>
<AlbumID>696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68841</AlbumID>
<property name="unread" type="flag" value="0"/>
<property name="uid" type="string" value="696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68841"/>
<property name="token" type="string" value="]album:696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68841"/>
<property name="name" type="string" value="My Custom Album"/>
<property name="date" type="real64" value="40138.893333"/>
<property name="category" type="num" value="0"/>
<files>
 <filename>[Z]\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish &amp; Chips\001.jpg</filename>
</files>
</picasa2album>

Now it would be great if Picasa let you work with these files, but instead it actively fights against you. Anything you do to this file will be wiped out next time you start Picasa. This is because Picasa really keeps its info in [ ...\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Picasa2\db3 ] and notices that you've tampered with the pal file and undoes your changes. You can rebuild your database from pal files but that is a bad idea. It takes forever, it's spooky, and it breaks the link between albums and web-albums.

Here's what you can do.

[4] - Re-name the new album to an unused value. For example, increment the number by one: [ 696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68842.pal ]. I think that any 32 digit hex value not currently used in your albums folder is okay to use.

[5] - In the file, set dbid to null and the three instances of the albumid to the new value and enter any file list you want. An example follows. Notice that the drive (in my case Z) is denoted by "[Z]" instead of the usual "Z:". Further note that the "&" character must be escaped as "&".

<picasa2album>
<DBID>null</DBID>
<AlbumID>696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68842</AlbumID>
<property name="unread" type="flag" value="0"/>
<property name="uid" type="string" value="696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68842"/>
<property name="token" type="string" value="]album:696fd5f8756a6af8d395d4c24cd68842"/>
<property name="name" type="string" value="My Custom Album"/>
<property name="date" type="real64" value="40138.893333"/>
<property name="category" type="num" value="0"/>
<files>
 <filename>[Z]\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish &amp; Chips\001.jpg</filename>
 <filename>[Z]\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish &amp; Chips\002.jpg</filename>
 <filename>[Z]\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish &amp; Chips\003.jpg</filename>
</files>
</picasa2album>

So this album is actually specifying the following three files:

Z:\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish & Chips\001.jpg
Z:\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish & Chips\002.jpg
Z:\images\photos\2009\03 - Fish & Chips\003.jpg

If any path in the file list is invalid, then that file and all files after it will be dropped from the album.

[6] - Restart Picasa. It will add your album to it's database, and you're good to go. Note that I've heard that setting dbid to null doesn't work for some people. It worked for me. I used Picasa Version 3.1.0 (Build 71.43, 0) on WinXP.

Okay, that's it. You've now made your custom album. Why bother? Well, like me you could have spent an hour going through tonnes of photos and recording their paths via [ right-click > Copy Full Path ] because you just wanted to export them and it was easier than [ right-click > Add To Album ], but then you decide, hey I do want these in an album after all.

Or you could be like the many people I read about who started Picasa while their drive was unplugged or whose Picasa just crashed and ate their albums, or whose Picasa killed a bunch of their albums during upgrade. Using the above you can recreate albums from old PAL files and recover from these situations. That's an aweful lot of greif to go to, but it seems that Picasa doesn't measure up to Google's usual standard of "don't worry about it, it's easy and it just works". From my experience it's more like microsoft's standard of "wow this is stupid", but I still prefer Picasa to the alternatives I've seen.

Backup

Having read the above, and knowing that your edits and stuff like that are stored in hidden [ Picasa.ini ] files alongside your images, there's only two things you need for a full backup.

[1] - Your folder structure. In my case: "Z:\images\".
[2] - Your PAL files. In my case "C:\Documents and Settings\Obadiah\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Picasa2Albums\b8ebd58cc0bbd85077b3521f7a54046a".

You can use picasa's built in backup, or you can just copy these locations yourself or you can use some 3rd party package. But be warned, Picasa's restore sucks. All the backup does is copy files from your disk to your backup location and all restore does is copy them back. So if you restore some PAL files and your current db3 already has an entry for them, then it'll just nuke your restored album and use the old "presumeabley broken" one. And if it doesn't have an entry for your pal file, it'll just nuke it (although if you use the procedure above you can restore old albums as custom new albums).

Furthermore, if the location of your files ever changes, all your albums will be broken. Say for example that you bought a new computer and you tried to move Picasa there but the file paths weren't identical. Then you'd have to manually edit all your PAL files and use the above procedure to add them as custom albums. That's one of the reasons I have my data on an external drive. You can tell WinXP that it should always be mounted as Z: or whatever, so you're guaranteed to have the same folder structure wherever you go.

Web Albums

For me, the biggest draw of Picasa is the web albums. For $20/year you get 80GB of online storage. That's not bad. Plus the web album interface itself is pretty decent. It still has a lot of room for improvement in my opinion, but its certainly better than anything I've written myself.

So, just click on an album and near the top right of the screen, tell it to "Sync to Web". Sounds simple, but there are plenty of gotchas.

With all that online storage, you'll want to upload full quality images. This is controlled via [ Tools > Options > Web Albums ]. Obviously you need to select "Original size (slowest upload)". What exactly is meant by "Use 1600 pixel size when sharing" isn't clear to me but from my reading you probably want that unchecked.

All good? Fat chance. There's a huge entry on the Picasa forum about attempts to upload at original size. There was a bug, fixed in Picasa 3.1, version 71.36 that just always degraded your image quality. There is still a "feature" that degrades your image quality for all images that have edits. They propose a work-around, but it would be so labour intensive, that I'll just stop using picasa to do edits and live with the bad quality for my existing edits.

On top of all that, even if you do get the full quality image up there (verifiable via [ Download > Download Photo ], near the top left of the Picasa webpage), there's no online interface to view photos at full quality.

Once you've got a bunch of albums online, you'll probably feel cramped by the fact that they're all listed on one page, either by name or by date. Sort by date is nice for event based albums like "Halloween" or "Trip to Costa Rica". But for subject based albums like "Photos Of Ottawa" an album date doesn't make sense (i.e. when the contents span several years). I've worked around this by choosing to sort by date and assigning false dates far in the past to subject based albums. The result is that my event based albums are listed first and my subject based albums are listed second and alphabetically (via careful choice of fake dates).

Which brings us to another surprise limitation. From the online help it really does sound like changes to album description, date and location on your local computer will be reflected in online synced albums. That just doesn't happen. So choose these wisely before syncing to web. Thereafter you'll have to make changes locally and then make them again on the web. And the web interface is slower and more tedious.

If you're interested. You can see my pictures here or here.

Web Host

2009-11-21T12:28:00.009-05:00

I've been running a variety of low-data, low-traffic websites since 1999. I've been with three web-hosts, one of which sucked. My requirements are:

good server up-time
good server response-time
php
mysql
add-on domains

I'm currently with iweb.com (as of Nov 16th 2009), and I'm very happy. They have a great price and a great service. And they're Canadian, which is nice. I paid $159.46 CAD (all-in) for one year with unlimited bandwidth, 600GB storage, unlimited add-on domains, unlimited mysql dbs, cpanel, and a bunch of other frills. They seem like a good company with a good history. And the best part is that their server is lightening fast. After switching to iweb, there was a significant and obvious improvement in page load times. Here's my pingdom data so far.

100% uptime and 248ms average response time is plenty good for me. My previous host, midphase.com seemed pretty good at first. I paid $182.16 CAD (all-in) for one year of hosting with plenty of bandwidth, plenty of storage, plenty of add-on domains, 3 mysql dbs, cpanel, and a bunch of other frills. My reason for moving to midPhase in the first place was the add-on domains (more on that below), but after I'd signed up and seen cpanel for the first time, I was hooked. Easy sign-up, great admin interface, midPhase was looking considerably superior to my previous host. But the response-time sucked. At first I thought it was my fault, bad scripts or something, maybe my internet connection. So I signed up for a pingdom account (great service by the way) to monitor both servers. And it turns out, yes midPhase response time sucked, but it wasn't just that. The really slow loads ~1min or so were actually mini-downtimes. Have a look at the charts.

So, the 608ms average response time is pretty sad, but it's the sheer number of down-times that I couldn't tolerate. Granted they're short. (I think actually shorter than 5min, that's probably just the pindom resolution). But I'd be working away using the punchclock, and bang!, the site would be dead for two minutes. That's a real pisser. And don't think I was measuring some resource intensive page. These stats are from a simple html file on the primary domain. In fact, before getting the pingdom account, I put up simple php, html and pdf files on the primary domain to rule out specific problems with dns, db, php, and file serving when one of the mini down-times was being observed.

After gathering some data, I went to midPhase support about it. Here's how it went.

From: Michael Holtstrom, Mar/11/2009 8:15:54PM

I've noticed that from time to time, my site appears to be down for approximately 1 minute. (i.e. I get the ...not responding... page)

Examples:
Feb 23, 2009 ~7:30am
Feb 2, 2009 12:42pm
Jan 21, 2009 10:41am

Since I'm not using the site all the time, I must assume that actual downtime is much frequent.

Is this expected?
Do you provide any uptime guarantee?
Can you suggest any actions to diagnose the problem? (i.e. logs, etc)

Thanks

From: James Rasmussen, Mar/11/2009 8:22:48PM

Michael,

I am showing that your website is loading, resolving, and up at the moment. You can try looking at the error logs in cPanel to see if there is anything there of import to your uptime.

From: Michael Holtstrom, Apr/13/2009 7:59:47PM

Hi.
As I said earlier, I've noticed that from time to time, my site appears to be down for approximately 1 minute. (i.e. I get the ...not responding... page)
I've been using pingdom to monitor it for the last month. Screenshot is attached.
Is this expected? It seems unusual to me that the server goes down so often. For example it was down four times on April 11th. This hasn't been my experience with other hosts.
Do you provide any uptime guarantee?
Thanks.

From: James Rasmussen, Apr/13/2009 10:12:43PM

Michael,

It looks like that was from october, november, and december. Could you post anything more recent? Your uptime is 99.52%, which is quite good.

From: Michael Holtstrom, Apr/14/2009 6:33:35AM

Please take a closer look. That log is from April 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th of 2009.
The date format is day-month-year.
Yes, 99.52% sounds quite good, however my past experience with servers has been
characterized by long (days, weeks, etc) periods of up-time.
Your server is non-responsive for several short periods every day.
That sounds like a problem to me.

1. Is it expected that your servers become non-responsive several times every day? What is the reason for this?

2. Do you offer any uptime guarantee?

Thanks.

From: Tami Mitchell, Apr/14/2009 1:47:01PM

Hello Michael,

I'm sorry that you are frustrated with the service. The hosting account you are currently on is on a shared server, and due to the nature of our shared servers there may occasionally be downtime due to excessive load. Please note that we do not offer an up time guarantee. If you feel that you require more control over your server, you may want to take a look at our dedicated hosting plans. This way your service will only be based on your site, not the activity of multiple clients.

From: Michael Holtstrom, Apr/16/2009 9:34:21AM

Thank you for your reply.
I don't mean to cause any trouble.
In many respects I prefer your service over other hosts I've used in the past.

In regards to "there may occasionally be downtime due to excessive load".
I assume that the load is relative to the number of accounts you host on a single machine.
For April 1-15, I observe an average of 1.8 downtime events per day.
I thought this was unusually high and that perhaps there might be an issue with this machine which should be addressed.
Is it your policy to load your machines to this level?
If so, I can accept that.

In regards to "we do not offer an up time guarantee".
Can you explain what is meant by the attached "99.9% uptime guarantee" from your linux-hosting page.

The site in question is low-traffic/non-profit, so I don't think that dedicated hosting is the right fit for me.
Thanks.

From: Tami Mitchell, Apr/16/2009 3:36:47PM

Hello Michael,

I would like to apologize, I had not recently checked if we offered an up time guarantee as I was unaware that we had one. This was certainly an error on my part, and I'm sorry for the wrong information.
While we do try to utilize our shared servers as much as possible, what you describe (1.8 downtime events/day) should not be happening and is not satisfactory performance. We are not aware of any issues on esc124, but I will let our admins know to keep an eye on it in the future as there may be some problem accounts on it.

Thank you for letting us know.

Well that's the story. So when my year's hosting ran out, I looked around and settled on iWeb, who as I've said are great. Before all this, I was with tera-byte.com for nine years, and I still use them for all my domain registrations. They're also a Canadian company and provide very reliable service. Have a look at the pingdom stats below. In the nine years, over two separate hosting accounts, I only ever noticed one downtime. They had some kind of catastrophic failure and the server was gone for most of the day. They sent out an apology email and said that they'd had to restore it from the previous day's backup. I did have some other minor problems over the years (like a bad server clock), but their support staff resolved them all.

The only reason I left was for add-on domains. They only let you have one domain per hosting account. If you want other domains to point to a sub-folder on your server, you have to fake it with a service like zoneedit.com or redirection.net. So I switched hosts. And I'm glad I did. Having cpanel and filemanager is awesome. And I think that iWeb will continue to be a high quality, affordable web host.

Customizing Blogger

2009-11-20T09:39:00.004-05:00

I started with the Minima template and made a few changes. Basically I just changed some of the styles, removed the header, replaced the sidebar and body divs with a table so that the page would resize nicely without one or the other getting pushed to the bottom, and embedded my own title inside the sidebar area.


/* ---- Header ---- */

#header { 
  text-align: left;
  color:$pagetitlecolor;
  font: $pagetitlefont;
  white-space: nowrap;
}
#header h1 { }
#header a { }
#header a:hover { }
#header .description { }
#header-wrapper { }
#header-inner { }
#header img { }

/* ---- Body ---- */

#outer-wrapper {
  margin:0 auto;
  padding:10px;
  text-align:$startSide;
  font: $bodyfont;
  }

#main-wrapper {
  padding-left: 30px;
  max-width:700px;
  vertical-align: top;
  word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
  overflow: hidden;     /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
  }

#sidebar-wrapper {
  width: 220px;
  vertical-align: top;
  word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
  overflow: hidden;      /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
...

<table align='center'><tr><td id='sidebar-wrapper'>
<div id='header'>Michael Holtstrom</div>

   ...

</td><td id='main-wrapper'>

   ...  

</td></tr></table>

Also, I'm using syntaxhighlighter which I first heard about at developertips.blogspot.com. But the author of syntaxhighlighter links to blog.cartercole.com which gives simple instructions and the text you need to paste into your blogger template to get it running. It's probably best to host the source yourself, but for now I'm going with quick-and-easy.

Windows Dos Batch Files

2009-11-13T08:38:00.007-05:00


@echo off

IF .%1 == . (
  GOTO ERROR
) ELSE IF .%1 == .goat (
  SET MSG=echo good guess
) ELSE (
  SET MSG=echo nope %1 is wrong
)

IF .%2 == . (
  GOTO ACTION
) ELSE IF .%2 == .goat (
  SET MSG=%MSG% ^& echo good guess
) ELSE (
  SET MSG=%MSG% ^& echo nope %2 is wrong
)

IF NOT .%3 == . ( GOTO ERROR )

:ACTION
echo.
echo Thanks for playing.
%MSG%
GOTO DONE

:ERROR
echo.
echo doit ^<guess^> [^<another^>]
echo.
echo Example: doit mouse
echo.

:DONE

You don't need quotes. But in order to check for empty vars you can prefix with anything, for example a dot. You get the args via %1, %2, etc. You set vars using anyname and later read them via %anyname%. You can mimic functions via GOTO. Special characters like <>& need to be escaped via ^ in order to be printed. You can print an empty line via echo followed by a dot, but you can't embed a line break in an echo. You can build a var that is a series of echo commands separated via the & symbol (which indicates that a new command is starting).

Living in Linux

2009-11-13T08:34:00.003-05:00

Who is connected on what port?

netstat -atn
netstat -at
lsof | head -1
lsof | grep TCP

The Best Resturant In Ottawa

2009-11-12T08:23:00.004-05:00

Koreana is probably my favourite restaurant in town. They have a great mix Kim-Chi, Bimbap and Sushi, and I really like the friendly, professional, but laid-back attitude of the staff. Usually, I have their Sushi and Amanda has stone-bowl, but next time I'm there, I'm going to try #20.

The Best Thing I've Ever Tasted

2009-11-12T08:19:00.004-05:00

This Hazelnut Cake from Simply Biscotti is the best thing I've ever tasted. I'd probably be willing to pay $50 for it. Amanda brought it home to me as a treat, for which I am eternally grateful.

Miss Emily Brown

2009-11-04T02:14:00.005-05:00

More new, great music from CBC radio.
www.emilybrownmusic.com myspace facebook
Her new album "In Technicolor" features songs written as part of her Canada Council for the Arts sponsored songwriting project: reclaiming family stories and found-poetry from women’s WWII journals. I think it's great. Check out this vimeo video from her site to see what I mean.

The album isn't available yet, so I bought "Part of You Pours Out of Me" from CD Baby instead. I've been wondering what the best way to pay artists is, and I've seen lots of online retailers lately. After reading this www.downhillbattle.org/itunes, I decided that iTunes probably isn't all that great for artists. And it seems that many artists can't get on iTunes without a middle-man like CD Baby, so I figured why bother with iTunes and bought straight from them.

Six Shooter Records

2009-11-04T01:41:00.009-05:00

www.sixshooterrecords.com

This is a great site that supports independent artists. There slogan is: "life is too short to listen to shitty music". I found them because I heard The Dozens by Amelia Curran (www.ameliacurran.com) on CBC radio, and Six Shooter Records was the only place to buy her album (a physical CD if you can believe it). They sent me the disc in a hand addressed padded envelope along with a hand-written thank you note. I'm impressed.

Chicago (day3) Oct. 4th 2009

2009-11-04T01:29:00.004-05:00

We woke up to another bright morning and walked to the fountain in Grant Park, stopping at Starbucks on the way for breakfast. We took photos and walked to the aquarium but the entrance was expensive and we only had an hour. So we walked further to the Space Center and saw some great views of the city. There was a bears game on and thousands of people were streaming to the stadium. And there was a huge tail-gate party, like nothing I've ever seen. Eventually we took a cab back to the hotel, got our gear, and had (normal) pizza for lunch at Luke's. We took the EL around the loop and back to the airport. Porter is an excellent airline. We had a very short layover in Toronto and were home in plenty of time and well rested. I had a great trip.
Photos, Map.

Chicago (day2) Oct. 3rd 2009

2009-11-04T01:07:00.005-05:00

We woke up slowly to a sunny morning. The hotel room was all windows on two sides and gave a great view of downtown. We were in the area called The Loop. Out of the hotel by 10am, we walked to Starbucks then had breakfast at the Corner Bakery. We walked around and through Grant Park and met a darling old Dutch lady who despite being almost entirely blind was sight-seeing. Next we boarded an architecture boat cruise, which was also a surprise, and I enjoyed it very much. The boat travels the downtown rivers and gives you a great view of the city and its history. Be warned though, it's cold and windy.

After the cruise we went shopping at H&M where I became the proud owner of Incredible Hulk underwear, a green merino wool sweater, and an orange dress shirt. Then we had to run from the rain and caught a cab to Gino's East for deep dish pizza. It's hard to describe what is meant by deep dish pizza in Chicago. Think of thick delicious almost cornbread-like crust in a deep metal dish with pizza soup on top.

The rain had let up so we started to walk back to the hotel, but stopped on the way for Amanda to get a manicure. After this, it started to rain in earnest so we bought two $5 umbrellas from a drugstore. The EL gives you the idea that you're sheltered from the rain, but its a fallacy. Back at the hotel, much fussing and stress ensued while I sat in my suite complacently waiting for the storm to pass. Of course, the result was that Amanda looked fantastic and we were bundled into a cab for the surprise main event. As we arrived, I realized that it starts with a red carpet, which was a little unnerving. Welcome to the symphony opening night gala. We ascended a spiral stair with hundreds of people watching us. I checked Amanda's coat while she fetched some complimentary wine. We sipped and discussed everyone's outfits and I felt decidedly like someone in a film. Later, in the symphony hall, they introduced themselves as the best symphony in the world. The first set was very good. The rest was very long. Afterwards, we stoped at Potter's Lounge on the way home and had expensive food and drinks. Porter's wasn't a great place but we had a great night. We talked about landmark events in our last seven years. I think mine were:
1. barrow and alex catching use at the earl street house
2. pride and prejudice in the victoria st. basement
3. getting engaged at frontenac park
4. our first stratford together
5. rogaine and exhausted at andy's house
6. hard winter and pushing people out of the snow at reaney court
7. costa rica.

Chicago (day1) Oct. 2nd 2009

2009-11-04T00:40:00.005-05:00

I knew that we were going on a trip, but I thought I could leave work at 1:30pm, so I wasn't going to to book vacation. When packing on Thursday night, I realized that I'd have to leave Entrust at 10:30am, making any real work impossible. Thanks to Chris, I had exactly the two vacation days that I'd need. So on Friday at 10am, I booked Friday and Monday as vacation, and rushed to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time but discovered that all planes had been delayed due to morning fog that prevented earlier landings. After a long wait, they gave us a 4:30 flight. With the extra time, we went to lunch at Thai Lanna across from the south keys centre. Before heading back to the airport, we picked up a travel guide from Chapters. Much later we discovered that we had accidentally shuffled the guidebooks and accidentally purchased the least useful from the selection. Back at the airport, we boarded a small propeller plane. It was Porter airlines and I highly recommend them. There is no first-class, there are no TVs, there is lots of leg room, your drink comes in a glass (read that not wastefully disposable) cup and the whole experience was vastly superior to that provided by other airlines.

We landed on the Toronto Island but missed the next connection by a few minutes. We ended up waiting until 7:30pm in a nice lounge with free internet at apple terminals. When we finally arrived at Chicago in the Midway airport, we took the train downtown. They have a great system there, easy to navigate, similar to San Francisco. We eventually arrived at Club Quarters, which is an excellent business oriented hotel. At 9:45pm (which was very late our-time), we had dinner at the adjacent Elephant & Castle. The server was excellent. I had the Union Jack Burger with French onion soup and two very well deserved Guinness. We had a great evening and overheard some interesting conversation from nearby lawyers. Finally, a little drunk and totally exhausted, we retired to our room, had a shower, watched some Malcolm In The Middle and went to sleep.