Hey Mr. Harper, cool your jets

The PM says he is willing to go to the polls over the current EI stupidity being clamoured for by the socialist dingbats in the Liberal party.

The answer to the problem of politicians is a large number of sacks, cinder blocks, chains and large bodies of deep water.

Hater Post – Cineplex Newmarket

Went out tonight to see Star Trek.  Film was excellent but the theater experience sucks and blows at the same time.  Concessions charge $4 for soda, $3.50 for a $1 bottle of water, staffed by the slowest movers ever.  No wonder theaters are struggling (place was empty) when customers get ripped off like this.  Wouldn’t want to take a family out.  Reception hall, hallways, and theaters, dirty, water damage in the fixtures, and generally in disgusting shape.  And they’ve applied for a liquor license, that should do wonders for the conditions.  Someone needs a visit from someone who cares about customer experience, but past experience with the chain tells me that no one gives a crap.

And it shows.  I miss independent theaters that were driven out of business by these cesspools.

Spectacle

Watching Spectacle tonight on CTV. Elton John is interviewing Diana Krall. While I have not seen all the episodes of this show, and we see it long after it has aired in the States here in Canada, I must say how excellent the episodes I have seen are. The usual host is Elvis Costello but he decided not to interview his wife, resulting in a brilliant show.

Simpler Times

As I prepare this I'm waiting to see Appaloosa, the movie adaptation of Parker's excellent western.

Great film. Not sure if the times were simpler in the old west but if the depiction is accurate they certainly were clearer. Shooting those who violate your code is illegal of course and most often wrong.

As we see the endless effluvium of political correctness a little simplicity might be helpful.

It's Over, for the moment anyway

I have to say I am pleased with the outcome of the federal election.  I would have preferred a majority to avoid what I fear will be a house filled with whinging, crying, stamping of feet and other behaviour that would embarrass a four year old.

One thing I expect for certain, the night of the long knives has already started for Mr. Dion.  Which is bad for the Conservatives because without his ineptitude, their bumbling in Quebec and lack of conversions in the people's republic of Toronto could have resulted in a much smaller minority if a win at all.

Mr. Harper's announcement today that he acknowledges that Canadians are concerned about their finances comes late for many.

The Conservatives have a bigger minority, but left a majority at the side of the road.  They need to learn from this.  And thank their stars every day that Mr. Duceppe doesn't feel for Canada the way he feels for Quebec.

For the rest of us, was it worth $300M of our money?  No chance.

Media Missiles

The dissolution of the US economy is truly unfortunate, but what I see on both sides of the border is disgusting. What I mean are the ongoing actions of the media turning a bad thing into a complete nightmare. I swear that these "experts" are more concerned with selling advertising for crap none of us need than with accurate reporting.

Things are bad enough without media morons causing panic amongst readers and viewers because those people are operating under the delusion that all reporters have integrity. Certainly a percentage of reporters are fine people with good values, but there exist many, including the "citizen journalists" used by many of the news gathering organizations for whom facts need not apply.

The real problem, is that the Chicken Little rhetoric can be made to come through if enough viewers and readers believe the crap that's published. The only person who can activate your own BS detector is you. In these times, you might want to turn it on and crank up the sensitivity.

Debate? More Like Food Fight

How disappointing that both of last week's Canadian Leadership debates weren't debates at all and more closely resembled a series of pie strikes at a single individual.

The media suggests that this should have been expected (true) and is fair (not true). If a candidate was a real leader, he or she would seek to create differentiation and a value proposition for his or her potential supporters in a positive manner and not focus on slagging whomever happens to be leading in the polls.

While I think that Mr. Harper was the most professional of presenters, his party has spent a lot of time working on creating FUD and a lot less time has been spent on delivering actual content. Good fellow, surrounded by some high volume of idiots. As for the rest of them, oh please. Clearly basic math and even a tenuous grip on reality are missing in every other case. Mr. Dion is out of his league. Perhaps he is a good professor, he's a poor candidate. Mr. Layton is blinded by the size of his enormous personal ego. Mr. Duceppe is an articulate speaker, unfortunately his platform is focused on secession, what I have always seen as traitorous action. Ms. May is probably a nice person but her cross country train trip has failed to deliver her to the real world.

The election is in a week. Cannot be over too soon, I'm tired of all of them already.

And Your Initiatives Are?

In the Toronto Sun today, there was a profile of the candidates running in our EDA. The majority of the coverage was provided to Tim Jones, the Liberal and to Lois Brown, the Conservative. Both used their interview time to talk about themselves, Jones about his years in politics, neglecting to mention having his ass handed to him in the last Aurora mayoral election and Brown talking about her family having lived in the region for well over a century. No mention whatsoever of the needs of the community, industry or any of the issues supposedly being addressed in this election. I'd say I was surprised by the coverage but I'm not. Too bad that the principle candidates are so focused on themselves and not on the people who might elect them.

Ontario Linux Fest

My friend John Van Ostrand is the driver behind a fabulous event called the Ontario Linux Fest. It's a great place to learn about open source software to meet cool people and hear from industry visionaries. This year the major speakers will be John Maddog Hall and Jeremy Allison. I presented on Virtualization there last year and thought it was a marvelous event with attendees who were really interested in the community.

If you aren't completely brainwashed by proprietary software, you should go. Get all the info and register online at http://www.onlinux.ca/register

Netbooks

I had a wonderful conversation this week with the head of Intel in Canada. We talked at length about the idea of Netbooks, these small, potentially omnipresent not laptops that are appearing in the marketplace. In the past these things were underpowered and undercapable, and didn't serve the needs of the next generation, or at least for me, members of my generation who are really technology enthusiasts.

Why is the iPhone so popular? Simple. You are always connected to the things you want to do and the people you want to do them with. Younger people text and chat far more than they email. They live the web life and demand to be always-on. The Netbook does this but provides the potential for more power than an iPhone, on a nominally larger screen and with a more usable keyboard. Having looked around, I presently like the HP Mininote, my only frustration being that the high powered model comes with a very large OS. Asus has proved beyond question that in this type of device lightweight Linux works extraordinarily well with minimal overhead. Were I to buy the HP (because it has the memory and storage I want) I'd wipe it and install openSUSE as a first step.

Intel is really working hard at this. First they built the amazing processor model for the MacBook Air (a brilliant machine) and are making real inroads with their Atom processor line, (smaller, faster, cooler, more green).

My ideal world would be a device envisaged by writer Andy Ihnatko. About twice the size of the iPhone, touch screen enabled with removable storage. I'd add USB and Firewire support, plus connectivity to Bluetooth keyboards, mice and displays. Ideally sized for travel, but capable of being used as a real laptop via device extension. I think Intel gets the mobile, always connected challenge, now we just need the ideal piece of gear.