Andy McKay's blog

This morning we found our garage door forced open and lots of stuff gone missing. Of course most stuff was backed up offline, but the most distressing part is that the Time machine hard drive was taken. We might have lost about a year of photographs of our kids (the rest is backed up elsewhere). That's the hardest part to bear.

Anyway if you are trawling on craigslist or eBay and see some of these things, give us a yell. A Mac Pro and a Lacie hard drive should be pretty uncommon.

White MacBook laptop
Mac Pro tower
iMac 24"
Mac Mini
Lacie hard drive 

Dell 24" WPD Monitor

4 gig iPod Nano (DNA2 engraved on back)
2 gig iPod Nano (DNA engraved on back)

Digital Canon Rebel EOS with Canon Flash and Tamron Telephoto lens

Sony Handycam

If you are person who did this, please return the hard drives from the Mac Pro or the Lacie hard drive.

Taken a few months ago from our canoe as we paddled in Deep Cove, there was a log full of them, this one more relaxed than the others.

Wanted to know what that ship in the Vancouver harbour is? Where its going, where its been? Want to know the path of the seabus today?

Via Dethe Elza, from http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/. Want to get it easy to use on my iPhone for next time I'm at the beach.

I spent quite a bit of time over the last month interviewing for a job. I was disappointed to find out that I didn't get the job last week. But this morning I got a phone call from the CEO, following up on the decision.

It didn't take much time, but left a good impression.

Had a nice weekend here in Vancouver. Went skiing up Grouse, walked the dog twice and spent Sunday afternoon on the beach. I'm absolutely delighted to think that I've got 3 beaches in walking distance of my new house, the furthest is about 10 mins walk away through a park. Ah that's Vancouver for you.

I also posted to the plone-users list asking if any Vancouverites were interested in re-forming a Plone Vancouver User Group. The response has so far been zero, so here's hoping it got lost in the traffic and there is still some one out there doing Plone in Vancouver.

After one week of being offline (apart from the cell phone), Telus finally got us hooked up. The difference between Telus and BT was so stunning to us in January, that we decided to go with Telus for our connection here.

In the UK we came back from holiday and found our internet and phone wasn't working. No idea why, so phoned BT. Three days later they came and in about 10 mins switched a box inside and left, hardly said two words. A month later we got a bill for 190 pounds. Danae was furious and wouldn't get off the phone till they had removed the charge. There was no forewarning of the charge so it was quite unreasonable.

In Canada the ADSL had difficulty connecting. Telus said they'd send someone out next day, I inquired up front of any charges "about $32 if it's your fault" they said, fair enough. The guy turned up 2 hours later, spent ages making sure it was ok, followed up with phone calls to make sure it worked. Cost zero, happy customers.

When we moved into this rental house the phone didn't work. Turns out the phone line is buried underneath the drive and is damaged, to fix it they would have to dig up the drive. This took 3 days of visits from more senior people. Today 4 people turned up dug a hole through the garden and hooked up the phone. Yes it took a week to get there, but they were friendly and helpful. Cost zero.

I'm sure for a big company like Telus there's a bunch of people who have unhappy stories. For one, I think they have a done a great job for us, twice, and it's kind of nice to say that about a company.

When I relate the story about BT in the UK they laughed and said "if we did that, we'd have no customers".

Over the last week or so it became clear that we were not going to be buying a house any time soon. We did put in an offer on the house, but it was way below what they were asking. Rather it was based on what we felt the house was worth in comparison with the other houses out there. Needless to say, they said no.

Then we started to think about upping our offer and getting into that house. It was at that point we realised that we needed to cool off and get a rental sorted. Sit this out and let the market settle. There are 30 houses in our area, in our price range. So far since the new year, one has sold for 80k under the asking price. So what's the rush. Inventory is going up rapidly, prices are going down (see here for sane stats).

So on Wednesday we got a rental sorted out. Friday we got the keys. Friday the shipment from England arrived. Saturday we got a car load of Ikea stuff. Sunday the storage arrived. Tuesday (tomorrow) we move in. Wednesday (the all important) internet will be up and running. Phew.

Doing this make me appreciate how hard this sort of thing would be without a support group of family and friends on either side.

So in a few days I might be able to get some work done. Oh and some house hunting.

So there I was in my friends kitchen on New Years Eve and I saw this on the fridge (cropped version of some form). I knew his wife played an extra in Season Four of Battlestar Galactica (looking forward to the 6th when its released on DVD). But then I found out he was an extra too.

"Oh yeah I played a civilian captain in some scene. Hung out with Six, Apollo, Starbuck and the director ... Adama is it? They were all cool, really nice." ... and I just thought damn that's cool. It's easy to get starstruck even at my ripe old age I guess.

So on day number 3 in Canada, we went down to the mall and got ourselves a couple of iPhones. It turns out Rogers had a new plan that wasn't on their website. It's not great, for $60 a month we get 250 mins, 1 gig of data. That at least includes visual voicemail, but doesn't include the stupid system access fee.

We went between the Rogers and Fido stores for a bit. In all respects the Fido plan is better with one exception. The Rogers plan includes unlimited phone and text to 5 local numbers. That's all the family and it accounts for 90% of the phone calls. We thought that was pretty sweet and signed up.

The credit card gave a groan and then Danae and I have both had shiny new 16 gig iPhones in our mitts.

And I love it.

And there is now a "No iPhone or iPod Touch at the dinner table" policy after we all sat there playing with them one night.

The flights were fine, the bits in between, running around airports or waiting hours and hours for (still) lost luggage, weren't. Lots to sort out and get things up and running for the new year.

What I've seen about the current discussion focuses on giving the auto manufacturers lots of money because that's cheaper than them going under. Some comments on that:

• If they are looking for $25bn in a bailout, that won't last very long - GM alone, lost $39bn in 2007. So how long will that $25bn last?
• If they are looking for that much, you know they will want more. They will become dependent. Does the government get to take it over? Does the management change?
• This is a problem that's been in the making for a long time. From slow sales to pensions and healthcare GM is a troubled company:

  In fact, per car, GM is now spending more on healthcare than it does on steel.

  Rising benefits burden (2006)

I see these as businesses that are inherently bad and going to fail. The real question is do you spend money now and keep them alive or wait for them to fail in a few years. I haven't been able to find figures on actual volumes of sales, but here's GM share prices, notice a decline since their peak in 1999:

Yes it is precipitous in the last few months, but this is more than just a shock, it's a crap business. You might help them ride out the storm for a month or two, but they will be going under until they can get their union under control, focus on cars people want instead of crap, cheating or just plain disgusting cars.

Note: yes the PT Cruiser is by Chrysler and I mostly talk about GM. These three companies are generally not good corporate citizens and I lump them together.

Passing (mostly) unknown to our neighbours to south, in the last month and a bit - Canada has called an election, done all nominations, campaigning and voted. As I write numbers are being counted by tomorrow we'll have a new prime minister (or maybe the old one again by the sound of it).

• No one mentions God. It might come by in passing, but that's about it. In fact in the UK when asked Nick Clegg gave an answer that would doom him in the US.
• No fixed terms, so no campaigning for years beforehand.
• Debates are forced in two languages, English and French. Although mono-lingual myself I do find it good that it forces leaders to know more than language. This isn't just campaign materials, the leaders have to get up on TV and argue in French. Of course for some this can be a disadvantage and for some - Stephen Harper's French is said to be weak - I think it creates for a broader outlook.
• No fixed terms. Oh wait did I say that already? Just get the damn US election over with and move on will you?
• More than two parties.
• We might actually get a Green MP elected this time. Maybe.
• No Sarah Palin. Actually she's kinda fun to watch and wonder who the hell would elect her.

By all means the system isn't perfect, lacking things like proportional representation. But to me the UK and Canada's systems of an unwritten constitution, Prime Minister's question time (oh wouldn't you love that in the US) make so much more sense.

Voter turnout: Canada around 64% source, US around 56% last election although trend is to show a drop below 50% source, UK over 60% source.

Well Rogers is going to be screwing the Canadian's royally that's for sure. The details are here for the new iPhone plans. But a quick precis.

• A three year mandatory contract. Yes three years, twice as long as O2, 1 year longer than AT&T.
• The top plan $115 a month (about 57 pounds or 133 US dollars) gets you 800 minutes daytime, unlimited evening and weeknds and 2gb of data.
• For an extra $20 a month you get "Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax" and evenings starting at 6pm (apparently its normally 9pm)

Wow so that's a monthly cost $135 + $6.95 (system access fee) + 13% (plus GST and PST) = $5,776.56 in monthly fees over 3 years. Let's compare this to some other countries:

The most expensive Canadian plan is outshone by the third most expensive O2 plan (source) and the cheapest AT+T plan (source). Yes I'm assuming unlimited data is the most important.

Shame on Rogers and shame on Apple, who know damn well what the costs were going to be. I can only hope the sales are dismal and instead in 6 months time Rogers loosen up or competition comes into the market place.

Update:

iPhone, yadda, yadda

Mon, 09 Jun 08, 16:25:04 filed in Canada