Today I'm not ranting about the grocery store...
Today, my bone is with the US Department of Energy. That's right, the same people who brought is weapons grade uranium and plutonium are screwing with us again.
With the passage of the Energy Policy act of 2005 the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time have been moved three weeks ahead and one week back. Here in the IT sector that has made for a LOT of extra work.
Every server, computer, switch, router, and handheld device with a clock needs to be updated. What makes this more annoying is that most software vendors (RIM just announced their patches YESTERDAY, giving us a whole 14 days to get every single Blackberry in North America (excepting Indiana, Saskatchewan and a few other spots).
With Y2K we had years to get ready, teams with dozens of members and budgets. Also, we could simply check out hardware and software against a database... package A is compliant, package B is not. Check one PC from each model you have on site to confirm that they're compliant. That's one of the reasons that Y2K came off without a major failure. We had the luxury of time and consistency.
We have consistency with DST as well... it's consistently screwed up. We've been handed the problem at the 11th hour and told "when you have a minute make sure that you get this done too". Just add it to an already overworked IT person's plate. Plus with DST we KNOW that every machine will need to be updated. Can't test one and know that it's good for everything, EVERY SINGLE MACHINE NEEDS TO BE TOUCHED.
It's times like this that I want to disappear and go herd goats in Tierra del fuego...
2007/02/27
2007/02/20
My NEW local grocery store
So the files are still copying...
I've mentioned before that the grocery store seems to provoke a lot of these posts... here I go again.
I used to have a Loblaws a block from my house.
It was a strange store, shoved onto a too small lot. They worked hard to make it work though, building it on stilts above it's own parking lot. It was strange but it worked. The store was accessed via stairs, elevator or, if you had a cart (especially on the way out), via a long ramp which granted access to the store proper.
About 10 months ago it closed under the guise of renovations. It re-opened recently as a Fortinos (still in the Loblaw family). The renovations are very nice, but I don't like what they've done with the entrances.
Both the stairs and ramp are gone. They still have an elevator, but people are discouraged from using it. Now to get in you use the escalator and they have a special conveyance for carts (I think they call it a cart-veyor). It's kind of like a cross between an escalator and a roller coaster, there's a linkage a the bottom of the cart which drops into a track and the cart is pulled up or eased down. The actual shape of the device is such that the cart stays level at all times. It's very cool, but it's energy intensive.
The new entry/exit features of the store annoy me. I can't enter or exit without riding some electircal appliance. I have to take an escalator up and down. These escalators and cartveyors are running all the time, whether someone is on them or not. Continually sucking up power, be it from fossil fuels, uranium or falling water. Wherever it comes from it's energy we'll never see again. I don't like to see this kind of coddling continuing wherever you go these devices "make your life easier". Heaven forbid we might have to climb a flight of stairs, open a door or push a grocery cart up a gentle incline.
This has to be contributing to the epidemic levels of obesiety in Canada. Recent statisics show that 1/3 of Canadians are overweight or obese (I'm one of them). The fact that they don't have to exert themselves isn't helping.
I, for one, will continue to do most of my shopping elsewhere.
I've mentioned before that the grocery store seems to provoke a lot of these posts... here I go again.
I used to have a Loblaws a block from my house.
It was a strange store, shoved onto a too small lot. They worked hard to make it work though, building it on stilts above it's own parking lot. It was strange but it worked. The store was accessed via stairs, elevator or, if you had a cart (especially on the way out), via a long ramp which granted access to the store proper.
About 10 months ago it closed under the guise of renovations. It re-opened recently as a Fortinos (still in the Loblaw family). The renovations are very nice, but I don't like what they've done with the entrances.
Both the stairs and ramp are gone. They still have an elevator, but people are discouraged from using it. Now to get in you use the escalator and they have a special conveyance for carts (I think they call it a cart-veyor). It's kind of like a cross between an escalator and a roller coaster, there's a linkage a the bottom of the cart which drops into a track and the cart is pulled up or eased down. The actual shape of the device is such that the cart stays level at all times. It's very cool, but it's energy intensive.
The new entry/exit features of the store annoy me. I can't enter or exit without riding some electircal appliance. I have to take an escalator up and down. These escalators and cartveyors are running all the time, whether someone is on them or not. Continually sucking up power, be it from fossil fuels, uranium or falling water. Wherever it comes from it's energy we'll never see again. I don't like to see this kind of coddling continuing wherever you go these devices "make your life easier". Heaven forbid we might have to climb a flight of stairs, open a door or push a grocery cart up a gentle incline.
This has to be contributing to the epidemic levels of obesiety in Canada. Recent statisics show that 1/3 of Canadians are overweight or obese (I'm one of them). The fact that they don't have to exert themselves isn't helping.
I, for one, will continue to do most of my shopping elsewhere.
Life in IT
So here I am again... it's 11:30 on a Tuesday night and I'm wandering around an empty office building while I wait for files to copy.
I've been here before.... too many times to remember let alone count. I figure I probably work 10-20 nights/weekends per year like this. It's a strange place to be...
For those of you who aren't in the IT biz here's a little taste. It's almost midnight and you're still at work. It's not your office though... it's the office of a client... you spend a fair bit of time there, but it's not your space... it's not completely comfortable. You've been working for a good 15 hours... most of the last 5 have been spent waiting... backing up data... restoring data... time consuming, dull as hell. You can't just go somewhere else though since something may go wrong and you'll need to take remedial action. You've passed the point of no return... if this doesn't work (usually by this time you're on method #4 since the first 3 just didn't pan out the way you had intended them to) you know you won't get the system online by the time the staff gets here... you really don't want to see their chipper faces in the morning. All you want to do at this point is to be done. All of your idealistic plans that you were finalizing at 3:00 are no longer important... working is all you really care about.
This is usually the time when I start to wonder why I went into this business... and why, after 15 years, I'm still doing it. I mean, really, what's the best result you can hope for? The absolute best result from a server upgrade is that NONE OF THE USERS REALIZE THAT ANYTHING HAPPENED. That's it... the best I can hope for is that my phone doesn't ring at 7:30 tomorrow morning with someone who wants to know if the Internet is down.
In case you haven't realized, I'm feeling tired and a little low at the moment... I know that when I walk out of here I'll be feeling good... very tired but good. The feeling you get when you know you've done a good job. There's no feeling like that one (especially at 4:00 AM).
I'll be better tomorrow... for now say a quick prayer to the Server Gods and, time permitting, sacrifice a chicken to them. My eternal thanks will be with you for that.
I've been here before.... too many times to remember let alone count. I figure I probably work 10-20 nights/weekends per year like this. It's a strange place to be...
For those of you who aren't in the IT biz here's a little taste. It's almost midnight and you're still at work. It's not your office though... it's the office of a client... you spend a fair bit of time there, but it's not your space... it's not completely comfortable. You've been working for a good 15 hours... most of the last 5 have been spent waiting... backing up data... restoring data... time consuming, dull as hell. You can't just go somewhere else though since something may go wrong and you'll need to take remedial action. You've passed the point of no return... if this doesn't work (usually by this time you're on method #4 since the first 3 just didn't pan out the way you had intended them to) you know you won't get the system online by the time the staff gets here... you really don't want to see their chipper faces in the morning. All you want to do at this point is to be done. All of your idealistic plans that you were finalizing at 3:00 are no longer important... working is all you really care about.
This is usually the time when I start to wonder why I went into this business... and why, after 15 years, I'm still doing it. I mean, really, what's the best result you can hope for? The absolute best result from a server upgrade is that NONE OF THE USERS REALIZE THAT ANYTHING HAPPENED. That's it... the best I can hope for is that my phone doesn't ring at 7:30 tomorrow morning with someone who wants to know if the Internet is down.
In case you haven't realized, I'm feeling tired and a little low at the moment... I know that when I walk out of here I'll be feeling good... very tired but good. The feeling you get when you know you've done a good job. There's no feeling like that one (especially at 4:00 AM).
I'll be better tomorrow... for now say a quick prayer to the Server Gods and, time permitting, sacrifice a chicken to them. My eternal thanks will be with you for that.
2007/02/10
Dole's plastic jars
It seems the grocery store is a good place for me to get agitated about things...
On a recent trip I took a closer look at Dole's "Fruit in plastic jars" (formerly canned fruit). Looking at the bottom I see that they are type 7 plastic, as seen in the recycling symbol.
For the uninitiated:
1 - Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE): This is the easiest to recycle, cleanest and "safest" for food purposes. Used primarily for beverage containers and other food purposes.
2 - High Density Polyethylene (HDPE): Slightly more common than PETE, fairly east to recycle.
3 - Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): One of the nastier plastics out there. Not easy to recycle (most recycling authorities landfill it), leeches toxic chemicals to contents. Used for detergents, piping, etc. I put products in PVC back on the shelf in favour of PETE or HDPE.
4 - Low Density Polyethelene (LDPE): Also common, mostly in bags and softer containers (margarine lids for example).
5 - Polypropylene (PP): I don't know too much about this one. I see it a fair bit and I know that none of my local recycling authorities can/will recycle it.
6 - Polystyrene (PS): A hard, usually clear plastic. Also often used as foam (Styrofoam - a registered trademark of Dow Chemical). Not commonly recycled.
7 - Other: Plastics other than what is listed above. If they don't tell you what it is, good luck recycling it.
Back to our original topic... Dole fruit.
It really irked me that they switched (admittedly, a couple of years ago...) from metal cans to these plastic ones. The old steel/aluminum cans were one of the most recyclable substances on the planet, the new jars are not.
I will continue to not purchase them...
On a recent trip I took a closer look at Dole's "Fruit in plastic jars" (formerly canned fruit). Looking at the bottom I see that they are type 7 plastic, as seen in the recycling symbol.
For the uninitiated:
1 - Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE): This is the easiest to recycle, cleanest and "safest" for food purposes. Used primarily for beverage containers and other food purposes.
2 - High Density Polyethylene (HDPE): Slightly more common than PETE, fairly east to recycle.
3 - Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): One of the nastier plastics out there. Not easy to recycle (most recycling authorities landfill it), leeches toxic chemicals to contents. Used for detergents, piping, etc. I put products in PVC back on the shelf in favour of PETE or HDPE.
4 - Low Density Polyethelene (LDPE): Also common, mostly in bags and softer containers (margarine lids for example).
5 - Polypropylene (PP): I don't know too much about this one. I see it a fair bit and I know that none of my local recycling authorities can/will recycle it.
6 - Polystyrene (PS): A hard, usually clear plastic. Also often used as foam (Styrofoam - a registered trademark of Dow Chemical). Not commonly recycled.
7 - Other: Plastics other than what is listed above. If they don't tell you what it is, good luck recycling it.
Back to our original topic... Dole fruit.
It really irked me that they switched (admittedly, a couple of years ago...) from metal cans to these plastic ones. The old steel/aluminum cans were one of the most recyclable substances on the planet, the new jars are not.
I will continue to not purchase them...
2007/02/06
Buddha's hand citron
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." -- William Shakespeare
This seems to apply to the grocery store as well.
I had thought I was well read, experienced, maybe even jaded. I thought the produce section had no real surprises left for me. Then I found a fruit that reminded me of nightmares I've had.
The Buddha's Hand Citron aka: Buddha's Hand, Fingered Citron. Like nothing I've even seen in real 3D space. Smells and feels a lot like a lemon, looks like Cthulhu. It's something I'd consider trying but didn't feel like spending $7 for one piece of fruit though.
This world is getting stranger...
This seems to apply to the grocery store as well.
I had thought I was well read, experienced, maybe even jaded. I thought the produce section had no real surprises left for me. Then I found a fruit that reminded me of nightmares I've had.
The Buddha's Hand Citron aka: Buddha's Hand, Fingered Citron. Like nothing I've even seen in real 3D space. Smells and feels a lot like a lemon, looks like Cthulhu. It's something I'd consider trying but didn't feel like spending $7 for one piece of fruit though.
This world is getting stranger...
2007/02/01
This bloatware it getting ridiculous!
This is getting crazy...
My 1st computer was a 486 back in 1992. At the time it had a largish hard drive (120MB). That was a lot of disk space. A basic install of MS Office could be squeezed into under 10MB (while still maintaining most of the features in the current version which can consume up to a gig). I worked quite nicely with 9MB of free disk space.
Today, I needed to download a new driver for my Logitech mouse. Just a driver (my 1st mouse driver took less than 100k). How much did it want? 42MB!
How much lazier are these programmers going to get? There is no reason why we can't have small, fast code being written. But hey, disk is cheap, RAM is cheap, processors are cheap... why bother doing it well? Just throw more power at it.
Just imagine where MS Vista will take us!
My 1st computer was a 486 back in 1992. At the time it had a largish hard drive (120MB). That was a lot of disk space. A basic install of MS Office could be squeezed into under 10MB (while still maintaining most of the features in the current version which can consume up to a gig). I worked quite nicely with 9MB of free disk space.
Today, I needed to download a new driver for my Logitech mouse. Just a driver (my 1st mouse driver took less than 100k). How much did it want? 42MB!
How much lazier are these programmers going to get? There is no reason why we can't have small, fast code being written. But hey, disk is cheap, RAM is cheap, processors are cheap... why bother doing it well? Just throw more power at it.
Just imagine where MS Vista will take us!
2007/01/28
Motorola does it again...
A few months ago I purchased a Motorola HS50 Bluetooth headset for use with my Blackberry. It's been invaluable to me, since the Blackberry isn't a very good phone (If a phone were my primary requirement I'd never get a BB).
In any case, my headset went missing last week... I knew it had to be somewhere though. The last place I epxected to find it though was in the dryer. Uh-oh! I must have left it in my shirt pocket and it went through the wash! I try to turn in on... no luck. Also, no surprise, it was just immersed in water several times then subjected to the heat of a commercial dryer.
When I got home, just for kicks, I plugged it into it's charger. Shockingly the blue LED lights up, indicating that it's charging. I give it a few minutes and try to turn it on again. OH MY GOD! It's working! Make a call... it works just fine.
What does it take?!?! I have never been able to destroy ANY of the Motorola products I've had. I've always sworn by their phones. Over the years I've had a LOT of phones (of 10 phones, 5 have been Motorola), never had I broken one. The same can't be said for some of the others.
Kudos to Motorola for making REALLY TOUGH products.
In any case, my headset went missing last week... I knew it had to be somewhere though. The last place I epxected to find it though was in the dryer. Uh-oh! I must have left it in my shirt pocket and it went through the wash! I try to turn in on... no luck. Also, no surprise, it was just immersed in water several times then subjected to the heat of a commercial dryer.
When I got home, just for kicks, I plugged it into it's charger. Shockingly the blue LED lights up, indicating that it's charging. I give it a few minutes and try to turn it on again. OH MY GOD! It's working! Make a call... it works just fine.
What does it take?!?! I have never been able to destroy ANY of the Motorola products I've had. I've always sworn by their phones. Over the years I've had a LOT of phones (of 10 phones, 5 have been Motorola), never had I broken one. The same can't be said for some of the others.
Kudos to Motorola for making REALLY TOUGH products.
2007/01/16
I love my shopping bins...
A while back I was looking for something under the kitchen sink. It was nearly impossible because there were plastic grocery bags EVERYWHERE (and this is a 4'x10' space). I hauled them all out and got rid of them, compressed they filled an entire green garbage bag.Halton Region (where I live) as well as the City of Toronto can not/do not recycle them, so they all go to landfill (or you can throw them under your sink and have them form their own "micro landfill").
Grocery stores in the Loblaws family (Loblaws, Fortinos, Zehrs, Great Canadian Superstores) offer shopping bins (pictured left, for purposes of scale the model is five years old) for their customers at most of their stores, they also use a slightly different cart design which allows for five bins to be places in the cart at once, all accessible. They cost about $4. On my next trip to the grocery store I purchased one to try. It was a good experience and the next time out I snagged another one.
I've been using them for about 8 months now and they make life so much easier, especially at the checkout. I can unload my cart onto the conveyor in under 10 seconds. It's also much easier to carry them into the house, one in each hand.
I purchased them for the convenience factor as well as the environmental factor (mostly for convenience though, it's nice when the two coincide... far too often are they in conflict). But, as an added bonus the Fortinos I go to gives a $0.03 discount for each bin you use to acknowledge the fact that you're not using bags. Three cents means nothing... I like to see it on my receipt though.
Now that the City of Toronto is considering a levy of $0.25 per plastic bag these may become more popular. Ireland has done something similar on a national level and reduced plastic bag usage by close to 90% in the first year.
2007/01/15
'Tis fit for neither man nor beast today...
Good Monday morning!
As I write this the inclement weather continues. The freezing rain that began during the night (leaving 1/8" of ice on everything so far) has now turned to ice pellets as the temperature drops and is expected to turn to snow as the day goes on. It's currently -4.
To hell with it all, I'm working from home today!
(Later the same day....)
Well, shortly after posting the above I got called out out to Mississauga to deal with a dead server. 30 minutes of scraping (breaking both of my scrapers, the ice on the windshield was closer to 1/2" thick). Once that was done it took 1 1/2 hours to get to the client... those poor bastards... they weren't able to get email until almost 1:00.
As I write this the inclement weather continues. The freezing rain that began during the night (leaving 1/8" of ice on everything so far) has now turned to ice pellets as the temperature drops and is expected to turn to snow as the day goes on. It's currently -4.
To hell with it all, I'm working from home today!
(Later the same day....)
Well, shortly after posting the above I got called out out to Mississauga to deal with a dead server. 30 minutes of scraping (breaking both of my scrapers, the ice on the windshield was closer to 1/2" thick). Once that was done it took 1 1/2 hours to get to the client... those poor bastards... they weren't able to get email until almost 1:00.
2007/01/10
A pilgrimage is required....
Here we go...
As my regular readers are aware I've been going through a rough time lately... damn this being an emotional being!
For the past several months I've been feeling the call of Lake Superior. I lived on the north shore from 1981-86 (ages 7-11.5) and did quite a bit of growing up there. The town in question was Schreiber, about 1/2 way between Thunder Bay and Wawa. Not the middle of nowhere, but you could see it from there. A great place to be a kid... I think we left a just the right time though, I wouldn't want to be a teenager there though. Everyone I spoke to after I left had issues with alcohol, drugs and teen pregnancies.
Moving to and from Schreiber was major culture shock... this is a Northern Ontario Railway town, 9 miles from a Mill town. Most of the men in Schreiber worked at the Kimberly Clark mill in Terrace bay, the rest worked for the CPR (I was, at least partially, raised by the CPR). Nearly all the local businesses were run by Italians... the Figlomenis, Costas, Cebrarios, Spadonis and Cacamos ("The Five Families of Schreiber"). There are, of course, exceptions to this but in general it's the way of things.
I hadn't thought much about the place in years, I haven't been closer than Sudbury (unless you count flying over) since '86, but recently it's really come back to me. In the past 10 years I've re-visited nearly every site from my childhood, except this one. As I exorcise demons I have fewer and fewer to deal with, so the same ones come up more frequently. If you've read ,y earlier posts you know that the biggest has been/is being dealt with right now. All that really leaves is Schreiber and its demons.
I need to go... I need to go soon, but I'll have to wait until spring. Winter is not a good season for tourism there, besides, at least two major spots I need to go to are in the bush... the snow's deeper there.
Until then, I'll just keep hanging on.
As my regular readers are aware I've been going through a rough time lately... damn this being an emotional being!
For the past several months I've been feeling the call of Lake Superior. I lived on the north shore from 1981-86 (ages 7-11.5) and did quite a bit of growing up there. The town in question was Schreiber, about 1/2 way between Thunder Bay and Wawa. Not the middle of nowhere, but you could see it from there. A great place to be a kid... I think we left a just the right time though, I wouldn't want to be a teenager there though. Everyone I spoke to after I left had issues with alcohol, drugs and teen pregnancies.
Moving to and from Schreiber was major culture shock... this is a Northern Ontario Railway town, 9 miles from a Mill town. Most of the men in Schreiber worked at the Kimberly Clark mill in Terrace bay, the rest worked for the CPR (I was, at least partially, raised by the CPR). Nearly all the local businesses were run by Italians... the Figlomenis, Costas, Cebrarios, Spadonis and Cacamos ("The Five Families of Schreiber"). There are, of course, exceptions to this but in general it's the way of things.
I hadn't thought much about the place in years, I haven't been closer than Sudbury (unless you count flying over) since '86, but recently it's really come back to me. In the past 10 years I've re-visited nearly every site from my childhood, except this one. As I exorcise demons I have fewer and fewer to deal with, so the same ones come up more frequently. If you've read ,y earlier posts you know that the biggest has been/is being dealt with right now. All that really leaves is Schreiber and its demons.
I need to go... I need to go soon, but I'll have to wait until spring. Winter is not a good season for tourism there, besides, at least two major spots I need to go to are in the bush... the snow's deeper there.
Until then, I'll just keep hanging on.
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