Category: New

Kate n’ Bill’s event’ll be the wedding of the year,

But, we’re not getting an invitation either I fear.

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Jack Layton said to PM Stephen Harper:

I don’t like that Michael Ignatieff either,

Why don’t you and I divide and conquer?

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In all that we have written about technology over the years, the computer sitting on the desk has been largely ignored.  It is utilitarian.  It does the job.  Sort of.

But times change.  Patience thins.  We are less and less happy with how we are treated by those people at Microsoft. Just once we would like to do the screwing in this relationship.  We have been the screwee for much too long.

The affair started in 1981 with the acquisition of that first IBM computer with a five-megabyte hard drive.  Having tried the floppy disc version, the five-megabyte disc was impressive.  You would hardly run out of space on that, we said.  And, after all, when we included that snazzy impact printer, the cost was only $11,000.  Who would not want to be the first on their block with that wonder.

And it ran on that easy Disc Operating System (DOS).  The machine came with a popular word processing package with which we were already familiar.  The version of Lotus 123 with it, came on a single five-inch diskette.  That spreadsheet software took about a day to become familiar and it did many a revision on the business plan.

Here it is thirty years later and we now have a computer with gigabytes of main memory and storage that cost less than $600.  It uses laser printers, a flat screen and surround-sound speakers and it connects to the world through the Internet at speeds in excess of five megabits per second.

So what is not to be happy?

Maybe we just feel ignored.  Hewlett Packard, who sold us the computer and laser printer screwed us out of $90 the other day saying that they would fix our printer problem.  The call centre failed and they would not give us our money back.  Norton let me down, let in a stinky virus and disappeared.  Checking with Microsoft, we find that that company is not responsible for anything.

We cleaned house and got the computer back on track but we lost a lot of time and records in the process.  The treatment in some ways seemed more brutal than the disease.  And yet it is the ongoing corruption of programs under Microsoft that was a major part of the problem.  Checking with techies, we found out that one of the solutions recommended becomes a virus in itself as you are unable to lose it.

Despite a rigid regime to keep out problems from the Internet and well-meaning friends, the spoilers out there are always dreaming up new ways to attack and poison the well.  There are solutions.  One, of course, is to move to the less vulnerable product from Apple.  At 15 per cent of the personal computer market, the hackers and virus writers do not feel the challenge.  And you have used Macs before.  So what if the keyboard lacks the feel of a real keyboard.  So what if it feels like you are playing with dolls.

It is surprising how many people are singing us the siren song to switch to Apple.  The song is attractive.  The screen on the Mac is a thing of beauty.  The ease of use is so tempting.  If we have just one more thing go wrong with this damn PC…….

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Did we note at Council last Monday?

There’s half a million dollars at play,

The theatre was sure to bite their A.

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Barrie’s no longer an under-served community?

Queen’s Park says there is no medical calamity.

It leaves Barrie families in medical uncertainty.

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Does anyone understand the current political argument on use-based Internet billing?  Does Industry Minister Tony Clement really understand it?  The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) studied the question and ruled that there should be use-based billing so that the majority of the users would not be paying the price for a few users doing heavy downloading.

Clement’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach was to have CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein hauled before a House of Commons committee and the CRTC decision put in abeyance. Once more the CRTC has been told by the politicians what to think and do.  It is what happens when politicians are planning for their coming election campaign.

The facts are that Tony Clement, who likes to pose as ‘with-it’ and ‘computer savvy,’ was the target of a supposedly viral Internet attack on the new billing policy.  This is despite the fact that the larger Internet suppliers in Canada had the billing policy in place for years.  There is nothing new about billing by the megabit.  And it is largely meaningless until the thousands of megabits start to be counted as gigabits.

How do you think that the large suppliers such as Bell Canada or Rogers can offer users different levels of service?  All data goes through the same modulation to go on to the Internet.  It is all transferred to the basic little 53-byte packets that travel helter-skelter through Internet hubs to their destination.  On the Internet, all packets are equal.

It is a very simple process for the Internet supplier to choke a customer’s service to limit their bandwidth—which determines how much data they can transfer.  You can pay for 6 megabit bandwidth or you can pay for 20 megabit or more.  It is the customer’s choice.  If you want to watch streaming videos, you need the 6 megabit.  If you do not want to watch videos, you might be happy with the Internet light service.

But all of this is bad news for Tony Clement.  He was conned by a few Internet nerds who pulled his chain.  He made the mistake in turn of pulling the CRTC’s chain.  The CRTC is commissioned as an independent body that is supposed to know what is going on in telecommunications in Canada.  Clement already made an ass of himself with Statscan.  If he keeps going this way, he will convince the voters.

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

The tories say crime’s on the rise in Canada,

Even though StatsCan can’t verify that data.

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Senator Segal’s book says conservatism is great,

He tells us why Harper can’t get out of the gate!

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Have they won against tyranny in Cairo?

The great pyramids, the Sphinx tell us no,

Winning democracy has a long way to go.

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Give credit where credit is due

Finance Minister Flaherty too,

They’ll teach us all what to do,

With money he leaves for you.

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