ethical microchipping

Microchipping people has stirred up some ethical debates in the past. The usual arguements (some convincing, some not-so-convincing, some downright paranoiod) float around until they just seem to go away. It seems the time to make a case for microchipping people.

People have been microchipping their pets for some time, for very utilitarian reasons. If the pet gets lost, you scan the chip imbedded just under their skin, and you can get info placed on the chip when it was implanted. Usually this info is the owner's name, address etc. Chipping people so that they can be returned to their rightful owner, however, is not necessary. Chipping people so their actions can be 'edited' is extremely necessary.

What do I mean by 'editing'? Very simple really. For example, let's look at self check-out lines that have become popular at box-stores and grocery stores. The first time you use one of these devices, the store proprietors should be allowed to monitor your ability to use the device, then retain your performance statistics. Your 'score' would determine your authorization to use the self-checkout service, and this information would be stored on your chip. Therefore, if you are a reasonably intelligent, competent person, you would likely receive a passing score, and would be allowed to use the self-checkout lines. If, however, you are a drooling moron who, despite repeated tries, still doesn't understand that the device weighs each item after you scan it, so you must put it in a bag, your chip will reflect your inability to deal with simple tools and automatically tell the self-checkout machine to shut down upon your approach.

Critics of this plan would probably cry foul, that this is discrimination. Well... they would be right. But if you can move the morons out of the way, and convince them that having someone else scan and bag their groceries is a special service, then any perception of discrimination would be eliminated. The rest of us would be able to use the self-checkout lines without the fear of being stuck behind someone who scans their purchases and immediately puts them in their cart, then wonders why the device keeps 'stopping'.

civilized?

Well as a group, humans are demonstrating just how uncivilized we really are. I say this because we are starting to cringe from fear of Muslim retribution. We have all heard about the opera in Germany that was cancelled out of fear it might upset the Muslims. And now, and artist is closing down an exhibit in the U.K. for the same reason. My question: Where will it end?

So at what point do we stop going to our own churches for fear of upsetting Muslims?

As far as I am concerned, the Muslims are idiots for taking these affronts so seriously, and the rest of us are idiots for caving in to our fears. So at the end, we are all equally idiotic.

So now that we are all equal, is it possible we might start acting that way?

JPOD

JPOD, Douglas Coupland's latest (I think) offering is well-worth giving a chance. The characters are typically Coupland, with quirky personality traits and strong opinions. The story-line is interesting, and rolls along at a decent but not tiring pace.

However, my favourite parts of this novel occur when Coupland himself shows up as a character. It's an oldish trick (the writer appearing in his own fiction) but Coupland does it in a refreshing, self-deprecating way. The story folds in on itself (are we reading a Coupland novel, a novel by someone else who knows Coupland, or a novel written by Coupland after the events of the novel have taken place? Take your pick, they are all correct answers).

I'd write more but I'm tired now. Go get the book; you will like it.

my most useful program ever

This is the most useful program I have ever written. It is a pause or sleep program for DOS batch files. I know, I know, there are lots out there... but I wanted the simplest pause program I could get. This one takes one parameter: duration of pause in milliseconds.

So... it works like this:

sleepy 30000

That would give you a pause of 30 seconds.

If you need support for this program, you shouldn't be using a computer.

Get it here.

Corporate Trash

It's been a while since my last post... and alot of very interesting things have happened since that time. The most important thing that has happened, at least to myself and my wife, is our mutual confirmation in our steadfast belief that humans are, for the most part, garbage. And collections of humans, such as corporations and their respective departments, are greater piles of garbage than the sum of the individual piles of garbage that inhabit them. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Our bleak outlooks were affirmed over the past two weeks as I negotiated (and subsequently declined... twice...) a new job in another city with my current employer. The new job was a significant jump in levels (2), an increase in responsibility, a better title, and other minor but attractive elements. It seemed to be, in and of itself, and excellent opportunity and a very good fit with my current skillset. The problems started when the Human Resources department became involved. Actually, that's not quite true. The problems started once I was identified as the top candidate, and HR then had to 'make it happen' for myself and the manager who wished to hire me.

To make things a little easier, I will list in point form the events which transpired. I will strive to list things in chronological order; however, some events occurred simultaneously.

• Find and apply for job at company website - job located at site I had visited and worked at for one week last year. It was a good experience.
• Contacted by HR - hiring manager wishes to interview me for position.
• Interview with hiring manager. Seems to go well.
• One and a half weeks pass... receive email from another person who works for hiring manager, asking some questions re. technical skills. Reply to message.
• Following day (a Wednesday), receive notification for HR that hiring manager has selected me for the position. I indicate that I am interested. HR says they will follow up with more details, salary offer etc.
• Receive salary offer. It is appx. $5000.00 more than my current salary. After much speculation, calculation, and planning, my wife and I come to the conclusion that $5000.00 is far too low to even consider moving across the province. On the following Monday I inform HR that I am officially rejecting the offer, and indicate that I am no longer a candidate for the position.
• I receive an email from HR asking what I would have taken as an offer. I tell them $10,000.00 per level (total $20,000.00 raise), relocation expenses, and free high-speed internet, expecting HR to laugh and go away, considering the pathetic original offer of $5000.00. I am informed by email that such a raise would require the authorization of a VP.
• I receive a call from HR next day, stating that the offer will be up to $3000.00 in relocation expenses, free high-speed internet for home, $12,000.00 in salary increase, and $8000.00 more after a 6-month performance appraisal. Not bad at all!
• Negotiate (or try to negotiate) some other details re. vacation, seniority etc. I am told the start date will be in 3 1/2 weeks... a very short period of time to try to find a new home and buy it, get ours ready for sale and sell it etc.
• Finally after much deliberation, I accept the job late on a Friday afternoon. I call HR to inform them of my decision and I am told that an 'offer' letter will be forwarded on the following Monday.
• Friday night / Saturday / Sunday - my wife and I find, review, and place an offer on a condo in the vicinity of my new work campus. We order carpet to be installed in our basement front room. We begin packing our belongings and arrange to have quite a large amount of our belongings moved to storage. Offer on new house accepted (conditionally). Financing and inspection conditions to be met on next Friday.
• Monday - Send HR an email indicated that we had found a home and that we require the paperwork for the new job ASAP in order to get approved financing for a mortgage. No offer arrives from HR. Continue to pack belongings. Painter arranged for Wednesday. Carpet installer arranged for Wednesday. Arrange house inspection ($375.00) for Wednesday on new home.
• Tuesday - things continue, still no offer paperwork (or otherwise) from HR. Formally resign from my current position.
• Wednesday- my current boss sends out a note that I am leaving current account and moving to Ottawa. This turns out to be a blessing in disquise as coworkers come out of the woodwork to congratulate me, but warn me that HR does not always (or ever) play straight.
• Wednesday - call HR enquiring when my offer letter might show up. I am told no earlier than Friday. Of course, this is not sufficient as we need the documents for the mortgage by COB Thursday. I send an email reiterating the terms of our verbal agreement to HR and indicate that if the documents are not available to me by COB Thursday, our financing will not go through, and I will not be able to accept the position.
• Wednesday - late afternoon the offer arrives. It does not outline the terms of the verbal agreement; specifically, the $8000.00 is not mentioned, the $3000.00 relocation costs are now available if I apply f or them (which of course means they are not available). Other details not mentioned at all.
• Thursday - I ask for my current job back, which I receive. I decline offer officially and indicate no further negotiations will occur. Luckily we cancel financing and offer on home.
• Friday / Satureday / Sunday - try to figure out how we will put our house back together. Calculate expenses for trying to take this job.

So you can see this was quite a ride. We, being my wife and myself, are still walking funny after the screwing we received from the company I have worked 8 long years to help be successful. I suspect we will be walking funny for a long while yet...

ottawa does it again!!

Yay Sabres!! I love it!!

The best part about the Sabres putting the Senators out of the playoffs is that it was a shorthanded goal (the refereeing in the series was blatantly pro-Senators) and the Sens player who got beaten was Alfredsson. He showed just what a lazy, good-for-nothing, self- important, useless piece of work he really is. He didn't even try to stop the Sabres player.

I love it!! Goodbye again Senators!! Enjoy the golf season... you should... it takes about the same energy output you seem to be capable of..

Oh and now maybe Heatley will have time to get a tooth... come on Dany, you make grillions of dollars (for apparently no reason), so get your damn teeth fixed! You make hockey players look like idiots.

quinn's gone

Well it figures. Just like any major corporation run by a board full of illiterate gits (which in my opinion can be interpreted as 'all of them'), MapleLeafs Entertainment Co. (or whatever they are called) have fired Pat Quinn.

What a bunch of idiots.

I totally agree with Pierre MacGuire on TSN on this one... Quinn isn't the bonehead who traded for losers like Allison, O'Neil, and (God spare us all!!) Lindros. And those three bozos fell so short of expectations they probably haven't even noticed the season is over yet... they are still stuck in January.

So I think I speak for many fans when I say "Good Luck Pat. It wasn't your fault. Go win a cup somewhere then send pictures of you with the cup to the Leafs Board of Directors!"

the leafs

Well the season is almost done and the Leafs are not in the playoffs this year. Nor do they deserve to be in the playoffs this year. But I don't think the season has been a total write-off.

The Leafs have learned a valuable lesson this year, I hope. That lesson is youth, youth, youth! They need to get rid of alot of players and make room for the young players that either spent the season with the Leafs, or were called up on occasion to take the place of older players who just didn't fulfill their obligations.

Here is my Keep / Get Rid Of list:

Aubin - keep
Tellqvuist - keep (if you have to)
Kaberle - keep
McCabe - keep
Kilger - keep
Tucker - keep
Steen - keep
Stajan - keep
Sundin - keep
Ondrus - keep
White - keep


Everyone Else - gone

PDF Creator

Well I found another great piece of software at sourceforge. This utility allows you to create PDF(Portable Document Format) files for free!

Yep, Free! You don't have to spend gazillions of dollars purchasing Adobe PDF Writer, or the even more ludicously-priced Adobe Enterprise 'Solutions'.

Okay okay so you don't get as many features. Well, chances are you aren't printing out top-secret documents that need 400 digital signitures installed on your computer just so they will open. You are probably like me: You want to print receipts or bank statements in a format that can't be easily edited, and aren't enormous in size. Plus, you can burn them to CD for backup purposes. You can get alot of PDF's on one CD.

What's really convenient about the PDF Creator is that it installs itself as a printer. Therefore, you can use it just like a printer. Instead of sending your output to the bubblejet on your desk, just pick the PDF Creator printer instead. A nice GUI will open and give you some options about what you want to call your print job, where you want to save it, plus some other options. It's nice.


Get the PDF Creator here.

very cool software

I don't post here much because it seems to me that there is just too much pseudo-information in our culture. So many people post pure and utter crap; someone (if anyone even reads this thing, which I very seriously doubt) may even think this blog is utter crap. That someone may even be me...

All that aside, I found a really cool software package today at Sourceforge called Stellarium. It is possibly the best star viewing software I have ever seen... but that's not coming from an expert. I know nothing about astrological software but hey I might as well say it's the best. It is certainly the best running on my computer. It is also the only astrological software running on my computer, but that is beside the point.

I won't try to explain it except that it is really really neat. The backwards-and-forwards in time feature is the one I found the most fun... plus the 'Constellation Art' feature.

Check it out here.

By the way, the Longitude and Latituded coordinates for London, Ontario, Canada are:

42.942 Lat. -81.267 Lon.

Olympics

Well it's winter olympics time again and Canada is it's usual throes of self-doubt. The common belief is that we are a 'winter' or 'nordic' country that should excel at 'winter' or 'nordic' sports. And of course we don't. With the exception of hockey, we are above average at best. We are not world dominators. We aren't even a nordic country, really. Most of us live at the same latitude as northern California, and the really cold parts of our country are flat like Holland, which pretty well eliminates most of the winter sports straight-off. We do have natural areas for skiing, but it's not like we ski in the same sense that the Swiss or the Austrians understand skiing. So it's not hard to see that we aren't really nordic in the true sense of the word.

And for some reason, alot of people seem to think our lack of representation at the medal podiums is somehow shameful. Somehow, as Canadians, we are supposed to excel at the winter olympics. Well, we don't. We are not complete failures, but we don't win alot of gold medals. And to me that is fine, but of course I am one very tiny, very insignificant voice.

It seems to me that the olympics are supposed to be 2 weeks every 4 years (well 2 years I suppose now that the winter and summer games are staggered) during which we as a group stop shooting at each other and generally being mean to each other. Excluding the middle east, of course. They aren't happy unless they are either blowing someone up or being blown up by someone. My point is it is a time for a world sense of community, not about who has the most medals. As Canadians we seem to have bought into the American concept of competition at every level and that self-worth is dependant solely upon how well you perform at a national or international level. American's have pie-baking competitions, folks. I think that's a bit extreme, don't you? They televise their spelling bees! Well that's a bad example, actually, since even though it is still competition there is the odd chance that someone might learn something, even if it is by accident.

All I am saying, really, is that the olympics aren't really supposed to be about the medals, but about countries coming together for a few weeks, forgetting their differences, and competing on equal footing. Sport is a common language, like music and mathematics. The rules are the same for everyone.

the leafs...

...are tanking. Everyone except Tellqvuist, Steen, Stajan, McCabe, and Kaberle. The rest, players, coaches, management... get rid of them. They all have to go. That includes Sundin, whose eye injury has impaired him far more than he is letting on. The rest are hangers-on and slackers. That includes the coach.

I hate Tuesdays

"Why", you may ask, "do you hate Tuesdays?"

Let me tell you why I hate Tuesdays.

Only on a Tuesday could my lunch explode inside my lunch bag on the way to work. Only on a Tuesday could cleaning up my lunch bag cause both of the sinks in our cafeteria at work to clog.

Only on a Tuesday could these things happen. All before 7:15 AM, too...

Gold Medal

Well the Canadian Junior hockey team just won the Gold medal at the IIHF Junior Tournament in Vancouver, B.C.

Things are as they should be...

too good to be true

This is great. I just got a bill from my bank for some unpaid interest on my line of credit. It just so happens that I paid it down completely last month, but somehow I have been charged interest on monies owning for some small number of days. I owe the bank... 11 cents. Yes. Eleven cents. Ten cents plus one cent. A dime and one penny. Two nickels and a dime.

You get the point.

But wait, it gets better.

Last year, I believe right after the wedding, someone tried to hack my paypal account. Long story short, the credit card associated with my paypal account (a VISA card through guess who, yes. my bank) came up for renewal at the same time. I didn't activate the new card so my paypal account would be useless, and now the account is dormant. Well, I just got a notice from the VISA-Bank people saying they screwed up in August last year, and they overcharged me by the breathtaking amount of.... 15 cents. Yes. 15 whole cents.

So do the math. I am ahead 4 cents.

So now try to figure out if I will ever see my 4 cents. I am betting 'no way in hell', but... read on.

The way I see it, I won't be able to pay the 11 cents I owe online because I think the minimum amount you can move around is $1.00. And the credit card with the 15 cents owed to me is dormant. So even though I should reap 4 cents out of this deal, I expect it will cost me $80.00 to reactivate the credit card, and at least $1.00 to pay the 11 cents online.

So is it worth it to go to all the effort?

No.

But, I am going to go into the bank and make a serious attempt at getting my 4 cents. Hopefully I won't get arrested...

kittens kittens kittens

Someone sent me a link to this website. The graphic at the top left is really cute. And alot of the pictures are of course cute. Needless to say, I had to upload a pic of Edward the Cat to see how well he would contend in the KittenWar. Right now he is winning more than he is losing, so I guess he's doing just fine!

http://kittenwar.com/kittens/41033/

this is too funny

I love goats. I don't know why, but I do. But this, this is just too funny:

http://www.qarxis.com/Fainting_Goats

konfabulator no more!

Well the konfabulator is now the Yahoo! WidgetEngine.

Whatever.

What is cool is that with the new release there are some neat new features I haven't got a clue how to use yet. But it gives me something to do and keeps me off the streets.

I do know that going forward my widgets will require version 3.0, so if you want to use them, go get the new version from here.

i hope i look like this guy!

Damn! That is one fine-lookin' Donkey!

another knofabulator widget

This widget connects you up to all the Canadian CBC Internet radio stations. When you first install and run it, you will see a blue bar. Just right-click and select 'Widget Preferences'. You can set you radio station and your font preferences. Close that and it will connect. To disconnect (and reconnect) just double-click the widget.

Get it here.