*WEDDING.BLOG.LINK*

I was just reading some of the letters sent in to the CBC regarding the recent budget bills, and their resulting confidance motions, and the passing of those bills. Our government has been rolled around a lot lately, and though I don't want to talk about which side I agree with more here, (though I may talk someday about who I think the 'winner' is) I was disgusted to read the following comment: (link to source document)

I cannot believe the stupidity of this government and the ridiculous Eastern Canadians who are keeping them in power.
When a government takes 60% of your money away in taxes and then uses that money to line their own pockets you would think that most intelligent people would be mad and angry and vote the party out of office.
I guess this is not true for the people of Eastern Canada. It's starting to look more and more attractive for Alberta to separate and let Eastern Canada pay its own bills.
Eastern Canadians can live off the labour of Albertans for a while but it's going to be a shock when we separate and there is no more money left to pay for your welfare cheques.
It seems that all my taxes are going to support Nova Scotian drunks or corrupt Liberal politicians and their friends. Either Alberta separates or I'm moving to the States.

Brian Maxwell

I don't even really want to comment. I'm too upset. I can't believe that people (anyone - even lunatics like this guy)

Actually no, I am going to comment but I will pick my criticisms carefully, so be forewarned that I'm holding back. As ever, feel free to draw your own conclusions.

1. NO ONE IN THIS COUNTRY IS TAXED AT 60%. In fact, it has come up twice in the last few months, so I know the exact figure. Anyone who makes $113,000/year or more pays 29% income tax before deductions (ie: most people in this tax bracket pay much less). Without going into how I feel about our tax system, that's what it is and that's the way it will be for a long time. I'm sick and tired of people complaining about high tax rates when a)most of what they have in their life they OWE to the tax money others spent on them (free elementary and secondary education anyone? Massively subsidized post-secondary education? Do I even need to go on?) b)most people group in with what they call 'taxes' their pension contributions (which they get to keep) and their EI premiums (which is really also their own money forever and ever) and their Health Insurance premiums (which are tiny, and are also theirs to keep and use as they wish - most people use much more than they pay into this system at many different times in their life) which are PRIVATE and have nothing to do with the government, and RRSP/RESP contributions or some other savings program, which is also their money to keep and has nothing to do with the government. Yes I understand that this money is deducted from their paycheck and gone, but considering, a much smaller amount of money goes to taxes then many people understand properly.
2. He's grouping people from Ontario and Quebec in with Eastern Canadians, which I don't think is fair - not because I don't like people from Ontario and Quebec, but because they have drastically different needs from the people who truly live in the east.
3. The 'people' of eastern Canada` (I'll use a back-tick to represent his version of 'eastern Canada') didn't have a lot to say about this issue directly - we, as a country, cast our ballots and made our decisions about a year ago, and elected a parliment to look after issues like this for us, so we don't have to vote on every tiny, minute, pedantic detail assosciated with running the country. WE DON'T WANT TO! That's why we hire politicians to do the work for us. And your politician voted as he though he should. If you have an issue with the vote, you really only have MPs to blame, not 'the people'. And in the world of MPs, this guy's voice is really only as strong as his MPs alignment with his ideas ( ie: his only voice in parliment is his MP, so if he can't convince his MP of his viewpoint, his MP won't be representing his view in the house).
4. While Mr. Maxwell believes the rest of the country is living 'off the labour of Albertans', I would suggest he take a look at the number of Albertans employed in Alberta, vs the number of people who work in Alberta but are, in actual fact, not from Alberta (ie: they still consider that they 'live' in their home province and will move there again when they can). If I had to guess I'd say that there are nearly as many 'foreigners' labouring away in Alberta as their are Albertans. I would guess, that Alberta's wealth is largely dependant on the labour of hard working people from all across the country. Maybe if Alberta weren't drawing all the skilled labour out of the rest of the country it (we) would be able to 'pay its own bills'.

I have to stop. I'm getting too worked up.

In closing though, I'd like to say that I think this type of immature ranting is excatly what 'people out east' dislike about what's going on in politics in the country, and is exactly why the conservative/bloq push this week came up short - Mr. Maxwell, and most of the house of commons, are acting like babies about this topic - and it serves no one.

Engadget & Joystiq’s live coverage of Nintendo’s Revolution E3 event - Engadget - www.engadget.com

GameBoy Micro anyone?

Engadget & Joystiq’s live coverage of Sony’s PlayStation 3 launch - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "Engadget & Joystiq’s live coverage of Sony’s PlayStation 3 launch"
Impressive stuff. I hope that it has the staying power/price point to match up to the new XBox's impressive media centre capabilities. Either way I think Sony's got a real hit here. Just keep the price down, please.

Wintersleep rocks my world right now.
This video is the shizzat.
P34(3.

Apple - Pop-Lock Ad - Large

For those of you who haven't heard the new Daft Punk record yet, first of all you're severly missing out. Second, you won't be nearly as excited as I am at seeing a new iPod ad based around one of the tracks called "Technologic"

Better yet, not only does the new ad showcase some wicked new tunes, but it also has some awesome pop-lock-ing as well.

PBS | I, Cringely . May 12, 2005 - Inflection Point

Exciting, smart, witty, accurate... Cringley's got it all this week.

So any of you out there expecting me to go on a tireless diatribe about how much I love the phone company are probably ready to fall out of your tree any minute anyway - so I'll bid you all adieu right now.

For those still with me, I'd like to let you know that I'm pissed at the phone company. The one and only, Aliant.

After years of less than stellar service at home with my parents, I moved to NB, where I was promptly gouged for a phone line worth about a 10th as much as I paid for it in my residence room. (The kids now pay about what a phone is worth, thanks to some slick Eastlink action). Not long after that, I realized what type of company I was dealing with when my residential phone on Union street, not only cost a fortune, but worked like a**, picking up Radio Canada Internationale and producing enough static to make it impossible to yell over - all AFTER someone came to fix it.

I had almost forgotten about Aliant for a while, but when I moved to Moncton, I was quickly reminded of their inadequacies. I requested to have my phone number changed because I didn't want someone to call me. (Turns out he never did, but that's beside the point) I requested the service, and requested again, and again, and again, and eventually gave up. I was assured again and again that it would get done, but it's now a year later and I still have the same number. Thankfully, I don't need to have it changed anymore, but there's no way that the phone company knows that - I asked to have something done and they didn't do it and that pisses me off.

And now, a new dilemma presents itself.

I want to add voice-mail to my phone service. I go to the website, fill out the request form, and they send me an e-mail saying "please tell us your password, then we can work on your account"

Two problems I have with this:

1. There isn't really any such thing as a 'secure' e-mail, so there's no way I'm going to e-mail, in plain text, a password that apparently has ultimate powers in unlocking some information about me that is password protected. That's just stupid.
2. I haven't interacted with the phone company for at least 8 months. Are they really expecting me to recall a piece of information I invented and last accessed 8 months ago? I didn't even remember that I even HAVE a password, let alone what it is. Now, they could be assuming I'm using a password that's the same as all my other passwords (bank, email, etc), or that I wrote it down somewhere, or that it maps to some important bit of info from my life, such as a birthday or something - but these ALL completely negate the reason for having a password in the first place, which is security. Are they expecting me to start guessing, by using passwords that I use for other things? (try the bank password, try the e-mail password, try the NT logon password, try my home computer password) Fat chance I'm going to give any of those vital bits of info to someone who's willing to have me fling my password across the internet in plain text!

Anyway, so I figure if I CALL them, they'll be able to verify what phone I'm calling from, maybe ask me some security questions, decide that it's safe to proceed and make the changes I need, like a reasonable organization. When I called them, the lady told me that they cannot do ANYTHING to my account without the password. Great.

So I get off the phone with her - disgusted but holding it together.
I call back, go to a different place in their little automated push-button thingy, and get on the phone with another lady and ask her if she can take my complaint. I made it very clear that my complaint in no way had anything to do with her or any other Aliant employees in specific, and was a matter of policy - so please don't get offended. I just wanted to make my voice heard and move on.
I tell her what I'm upset about - it's not reasonable to expect someone to remember information this way, it's not reasonable to provide no recourse if the information is lost, etc - and she starts to argue with me !! I couldn't believe it. I kept my cool and didn't argue back or anything, but I couldn't believe that she was trying to talk me out of my opinion.

She also told me that the account passwords are 'optional' and you don't have to have them set up if you don't want them, but once a password is set, you have to show up at one of their special identity verification stations (ie: mall kiosk) and present your ID to reset the password - which is crazy because I never would have put a password on the account if I didn't feel like it was necessary, so someone at Aliant 'pressured' me into it a long time ago, neglecting to mention that my account would be totally inaccessible if I ever forgot what that password was.

Lady: "Aren't you happy we're protecting your account so effectively?"
JD: "No. I'm upset because I can't do anything with the account. If I was pleased with it, I wouldn't be asking you to record a complaint."

Lady: "We're regulated by the CRTC and have to have checks like this in place."
JD: "Didn't you just tell me that the passwords were optional."
Lady: "Yes, they are"
JD: "Well, are the passwords optional, or does the CRTC require them?"
Lady: "What do you mean?"

The whole time she's been interrupting me, trying to get her points in.

I'm starting to get upset at this point so I ended the conversation by asking her to please just log my complaint so that someone hears what I have to say.

Maybe I don't have the security requirements that the typical Aliant/CRTC user has. It really wouldn't be a huge deal if someone called and added a $5 option to my phone service without me knowing. I'd just call and have it removed. So what - I'm an atypical customer. Arguing with me about the merits of a password verification system is not going to make me into a typical customer. And I should not have been persuaded to password protect my account if it's not something that suits my usage pattern with the phone company.

Also, I want to point out that it's a little sad that a 25+ girl is sitting in a call center somewhere making $10/hr and working terrible hours, and is willing to stand up for the phone company she works for to the extent that she was willing to treat me so poorly - not only was it a bad way to treat someone who is your customer, but I would have been offended talking with anyone if they were arguing with me in such a manner. I couldn't believe she was interrupting me! I certainly let her finish everything she had to say...

Anyway, here's to competition in the telco sector.

Joel on Software - Making Wrong Code Look Wrong: "Way back in September 1983, I started my first real job, working at
Oranim, a big bread factory in Israel that made something like 100,000
loaves of bread every night in six giant ovens the size of aircraft
carriers."

Go check out Joel's article for some great reading on how to set up a good process model, to help avoid problems before you even know what they are. That Spolsky's one smart cookie.

He links to a great article at the end of his piece as well.

Sorry they posting has been so infrequent, as of late.
Go check out this new toon. It will cheer you up.

I couldn't resist an impulse buy today at the record store. Well worth it though.

Each of these topics deserve their own post, but I'm going to be lazy/efficient and just ask my viewers to please afford each topic the attention they are worth.

First, let's all congratulate M# on his new MARRIAGE!! Hopefully we'll get more details soon, about possible honeymoons, living arrangements, future plans now that everyone's graduated and everything... or maybe that's none of our damned business and we won't hear anything. Either way, this is a big, BIG deal and I'd really like to wish M# and K all the best.

I'm actually going to switch the order of the next two from their introduction in the title. Just because I can.

Everyone should go check out Zunior.com. (Will be added to my sidebar soon) It's a great new spin on the traditional ideas about how to sell music. Artists pay a very small fee to list with Zunior and then Zunior sells their music to us, for a very small fee (most albums are $8.88 CAN) via PayPal (which I'm guessing many of you are accustomed to already) They're just getting started so there's not a lot of music on there, and you won't find any super big names like Brittney Spears or Phil Collins that already distribute through a major label, (because that label already owns the distribution rights), but it's a great way to get into some wicked Canadian content that's normally pretty hard to find, and can be too expensive to buy in record stores. Who falls into this category? Let's have a look at a few of my faves:

• In-Flight Safety (check out their new video too. It's amazing - shot in SACKVILLE!)
  
• Elevator
• The Inbreds
• Mike O'Neill
• Wooden Stars
• The Rheostatics
  
• The Neutron Stars (I actually haven't heard these guys, but that's a kick-ass name)
• and many more...

The artist gets the money - you get the music, cheap and fast, artwork included. They do an internet radio station, and streaming video. The whole thing got started by Dave Ullrich and somehow one of the Inbreds guys, Mike O'Neill, is wrapped up in this too.

On to less-virtual music, I'm going to buy the new Ryan Adams CD today (the physical CD), and I've been practically shaking with excitement for days, waiting for the time to come. I can't wait to hear it. I bought the single off iTunes recently, and I love it. It's very twangy-Whiskeytown which is really what I want right now. Anyone looking for some wicked summertime music, go check this record out as soon as you can.

That's it for now.