Roger's Wireless And The Canadian iPhone

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if (is_single()) { ? } ?I missed the boat on the first round of Canadian iPhone action last year mainly because I was (quite stupidly) locked into a crazy Bell Mobility contract. The current consensus of the rumour mill is that Apple is gearing up to announce the 3G version of the iPhone on June 9th, which would hopefully put that model into Canadian stores sometime in the near future. I have been patiently awaiting it’s arrival so I can call up Bell and tell them where they can shove my phone and my crappy contract. The only problem is that Roger’s has been completely silent on what type ...

Walk The Dinosaur

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I have no idea where the hell this song came from. I went to Canadian Tire with Rebecca and John last night and somehow we ended up singing this stupid song. Anyways, here’s a quick recap from the late 80s, in case you missed them. ...

You Know You're Having A Shitty Day When…

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Office Worker Meltdown Second Angle – Watch more free videos Another Angle: Office Worker Goes Absolutely Insane – Watch more free videos You can’t help me wonder what set this guy off, or if he has some illness that led to this outbreak. I’ve had some bad days at the office, but nothing like that. Hat Tip: John Biehler. ...

Elevator Confusion

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I work in a big highrise downtown, which means I have the pure joy of dealing with the elevator system whenever I need to go anywhere. For whatever reason you can only take the stairwell in our building on the way down. Considering we’re only on the third floor, the inability to walk up a few flights of stairs is a big pain in the ass. One of the things you notice after a while is that some people invariably lose their bearings whenever they enter an elevator while others do not (the confusing part is we have a bank of elevators, and sometimes you end up in one of the south side of the building, ...

Apple TV – Nearly Hacked

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The other day John contacted me and told me about a new hack for the Apple TV. It’s basically an amalgamation of all the available hacks and updates for it, but it’s packaged in a nice, easy to use USB installer. Before I get into my hacking attempt, I want to give a quick review of what I think of Apple TV so far. To be honest, I really like the idea of what Apple TV is supposed to be. Unfortunately, it’s not really that yet. The main problem is there really isn’t enough content on it. I check back every week, hoping for a massive change in titles, but for the most part there’s just ...

Hosting Experiment Part II

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A while ago I did a quick and dirty hosting experiment with some of my readers. I actually need a bit more data, although what I’m after is a bit easier this time. So, if you have a blog, all I ask is that you let me know the following: The URL for your blog The name of the hosting company that you’re on If you like it or not So please post a comment if you have some of that info, or send me an email if you don’t really want it public. If you know of any friends and where they are at, let me know too. Thanks! ...

Might As Well Just Stay Home These Days

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You know, I remember back in the good old days when you could cross the US/Canada border relatively easily. The worse thing that would typically happen was for you to have your car searched, or get asked a pile of questions from a border guard. That changed a few years ago when the border agents were given the ability to search your laptop for child pornography. And while I think the end goal (cracking down on pedophiles) is a good one, I have to say that I’m against the current method of blindly searching through digital content. Luckily I’ve never been searched at the border, which is rather ...

Mazda 3 And The Dreaded Door Attack

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A few years ago my mom convinced me that I should finally ditch my 1993 Toyota Tercel (which seemed to be running on only 3 cylinders) and upgrade to something nicer. After spending a few days test driving cars, I finally went out and bought a 2006 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback. For the most part, it’s been a really great car. The mileage isn’t super amazing (it’s not that bad either, but definitely no Prius), but it’s fun to drive and it looks pretty sexy (for a hatchback). The only downside is that last year Mazda admitted to a problematic design flaw in the locking mechanism, one that allowed ...

Dear George Lucas

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if (is_single()) { ? } ?Please, for the love of god, stop making movies. Whatever magic you used to bring to the table evaporated a long time ago. As you can tell, I saw the new Indiana Jones movie on the weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy it, and found myself looking at my cell phone from time to time to see how much more I had to endure. First, you don’t need CGI gophers to propagate the plot. The first time the camera swung by and I saw them, I almost groaned out loud, seeing the obvious resemblance to the little furry Ewoks that stunk up the screen during Episode VI of Star ...

Go Green Or Go Home, Part I

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As most of you remember, last year I threw the environmental gauntlet down and challenged all my readers to replace their old, energy inefficient incandescent light-bulbs with the newer CFL variant. Many of my friends and readers quickly went to work and replaced many of the bulbs in their houses, some even going as far to replace every single one. I replaced most of the ones in my apartment, and probably save on average of about 0.3kWh every day in my place alone. I actually started a Flickr group for this purpose last year to help motivate people. I was a bit surprised to go into it tonight ...

Visa's Idiotic Security Policy

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Ever since I was about 18 years of age, I have had a credit card. The main reason, at least at first, was simply to build up a credit rating in case I ever needed a loan (which I ended up requiring when I went to university). Nowadays, I use my visa primarily for work expenses, since I tend to do a lot of traveling with my job. To that end, I probably spend close to $30,000 on my visa a year, a good portion of which comes from plane rides and hotel rooms when I’m on the road. I have no idea what my credit limit is on my visa, but last time I checked (which was a few years ago), there was enough ...

CityTV Steals Images, Forced To Give On-Air Apology

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I read this article this morning, and as a photographer, found it rather surprising. A few weeks ago CityTV used some guy’s photos off of Flickr and used them in an on-air broadcast. The person who took them did talk to someone from CityTV, but did not give them permission to use the photos. Nonetheless, they aired the photos without any sort of attribution. Obviously the person who took them was upset, and appealed to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) about it. After nine months, the CBSC finally ruled that CityTV should be forced to apologize on air: As a result, City must issue ...

Apple Vancouver Store Opening On May 24

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Well, by now everyone and their dog has blogged this, but I’ll jump on the band wagon as well. Rebecca just pinged me on iChat and told me about the opening of the new Apple store this Saturday. To be honest, it comes as a fairly big surprise given the state they were in last month (based on rumours). Obviously I think it’s a pretty cool thing that they are opening this weekend. Considering that many of the rumour sites are alluding to big announcements from Apple on June 9th at the developer conference, I can’t help but think the construction of the Vancouver store was accelerated for ...

Back From The States

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I got back from Deception Pass early this afternoon, and I have to say, it was a really great trip. I spent most of the time there just sitting around the campfire reading, often taking a sip from a can of beer when my attention wandered from the pages. I took a little day trip on Saturday, driving back along the water towards Anecortes, and then south towards Oak Harbour. Driving along the open road with the windows open made me realize just how long it has been since I’ve gotten away for a weekend. Not only that, but it makes me extremely excited for the block of time off I’m taking in ...

Heading South

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Being that this weekend is the May long weekend, and unofficially (at least in British Columbia circles) the start of summer, I thought I might get in the car and take a little road trip. My sister and the kids are camping near Deception Pass in Washington, State, and I’m seriously considering hopping in the car later tonight and making the trek down to hang out with them. It’s supposed to be 30C, which is rather nice weather to be sitting outside. I have to see what the state of my camping gear is in the back of my car, but assuming it’s all there are prepped to go, I might head out around ...

New Music West And Red Room Fail

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Tonight was a jam packed night. I left work around 7pm, and then headed down Granville Street, frantically looking for something to eat. I actually walked into Wings, but it was completely full. So eventually I settled on my old-faithful nacho-haven, the Two Parrots. They had a 35 cent wing special on, so I filled up with that. Eventually I ended up at some Spanish place (coincidentally, it’s only one block from my place, and I had never been there) to celebrate Raul’s graduation from UBC with his Ph.D. (congrats dude, well, deserved). Good times. As some of you know, this weekend is New ...

BC Victim's Assistance Program

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A few weeks ago I received a phone call, the purpose of which was ultimately to talk about some of the injuries I obtained as a result of the incident in November of 2006. During that call, I was asked if I had ever applied for compensation to the BC Victim’s Assistance Program, which I hadn’t even heard of to be honest. The BC Victim’s Assistance Program is a government run program meant to help people who were the victims of violent crimes move on with their lives. It provides financial compensation for people due to medical expenses, time off work, counseling services, and lost income ...

QR Codes

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I read an article this morning that made mention of QR codes, and to be honest, I had never heard of them before. After doing some research, it appears that QR codes are essentially two-dimensional bar-codes that are fairly popular in Japan. A user with a camera phone can simply point their phone at a QR code and, assuming it is QR code aware, will decode the symbol. QR codes can be used to encode URLs, phone numbers, text information, and SMS messages. So you can have an advertisement and simply put your URL as a QR code. A user passing by could simply hold their camera in front of the code, ...

Broken Dryer

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My dryer at home basically stopped working a few weeks ago, so I’ve been rotating ever-so-slowly through my wardrobe. My landlord was going to come by and take a look at it, but I don’t think he’s been feeling very well lately. So anyways, considering I’m out of clean clothes and I’m out of clean sheets, I decided to take care of it today. So I’m working from home, waiting for a repair guy to come by and fix it up. While I’m at it, I’m going to rant about people who play the lottery. I got no problem that you want to play 6-49 all day, but please make some decisions before you ...

Happy Mother's Day

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Well, most people go through this world with only one mom, but i’ve been fortunate enough to have two in my life. My mom, at Cultus Lake last summer My step-mom, Cathy, also at Cultus Lake last summer Once I get cleaned up here I’ll be placing a few phone calls. But until then, Happy Mother’s Day, moms. ...