15:40 |
Virgin Mobile has been storing the location records of its 1m customers since the network launched in November 1999 . . . "Sensitive data revealing where you are, and who you talk to could be pulled into a central databases for public demonstrations, health and safety, tax, or minor crime," [Caspar Bowden] said. "Collecting the streams of thought of the population and processing them by computer is a good definition of a police state."
09:57 |
2001/10/30
15:42 |
10:03 |
For months, Health Canada and the provinces have quietly prepared for the near-certainty that the world will be hit by a virulent new flu virus that could kill millions. A key element of those preparations has been to develop a plan that ensures Canadians have quick access to immunization.
09:34 |
2001/10/29
It seems the joke's on them. In Toronto yesterday, on the second of three nights of Gemini awards presentations, the mischievous stars of Buzz, Daryn Jones and Morgan Smith, along with writer Michael MacKinnon, surprised everyone by taking home the prize.
15:10 |
09:52 |
09:47 |
09:19 |
2001/10/26
16:01 |
Regarding the tunnel crash in Switzerland:
Officials have been concerned about volumes of traffic in tunnels for some time, suggesting that more freight needs to be moved through the mountains using rail rather than road transit.
Ahh, if only they'd take some initiative to get the trucks off the road over here!
From this article about the Win XP launch:
While there are always people who will rush out to buy the latest piece of software, many analysts have pointed out that Microsoft is launching XP at a tough time. Personal computer sales are down amid the sluggish economy and sales of XP are expected to take their lead from PC shipments.
I hope XP makes an eXPress trip to the trash can.
4 out of 5 dentists agree that chocolate is okay . . . sort of.
15:56 |
2001/10/25
. . . okay, enough surfing.
14:18 |
14:03 |
Grim outlook for Canadian economy?
Be careful when mixing drugs and grapefruit juice!
Taliban to poison their own, just for the sake of a propaganda war!? From this article:
"We are confident in the information that we have that they may intend to poison one or more types of food sources and blame it on the Americans," Stufflebeem said. "We are releasing this information pre-emptively so that (Afghans) will know if the food comes from Americans, it will not be tainted."
11:17 |
2001/10/24
11:14 |
2001/10/19
15:59 |
Anthrax is a poor weapon to poison a water supply, as it immediately begins to dilute once in water. The scare that crop-dusting planes could be used to spread anthrax spores is another false fear, as the anthrax must be vaporized to be effective; the crop-dusting chemicals rain down in droplets, which can't be inhaled.
09:30 |
Almost half of the money, $5.62 million, will go towards buying antibiotics to help people exposed to anthrax.
09:22 |
I would like the call an official boycott against Drew Barrymore's new movie (the one about cars and boys) b/c I am SICK of seeing ads for this stupid movie on EVERY website I goto (news, yahoo, etc.)!!!
09:06 |
2001/10/18
"It's not a decision for council, it's not a decision for the city. The federal government can decide to have whatever conferences it wants in the city. And it can expect the city police forces and city services to be available," said Mr. Chiarelli. "We need to send a message to the world that democracy is not going to come to a stop because of Sept. 11, or democracy is not going to come to a stop because of a small number of radicals who may choose to disrupt the meeting."
The first and second clauses of that statement seem a little contradictory, if you ask me!
10:52 |
09:12 |
2001/10/17
11:44 |
The offices of the Minister federal for Work, Claudette Bradshaw, had to be evacuated, last Monday, after the discovery of a suspect parcel. Finally, the alarm caused by a doubtful substance which ran out of the package is proven without consequence since one discovered... maple syrup there.
The press attach?ƒ?© of the minister, David Clug, confirmed that Mrs. Bradshaw had controlled the liquid in question for the inter-American Conference of the Ministers for Labour which begin today.
" Of maple syrup was controlled for the conference. Traditionally, of the Canadian gifts are given to the ministers who come here. One made the decision to offer maple syrup of New Brunswick, and the product us was thus sent ", indicated Mr. Clug.
" a bottle burst in the box while arriving by mail in the building. One did not take a chance and the employees contacted the firemen of Hull ", it added.
The building sheltering the offices of the minister was evacuated in morning. Everyone however could reinstate its station in afternoon.
09:05 |
2001/10/16
The Asian ladybug, a native of Japan, is taking over from native species of the beetle. Unlike native ladybugs that devour only aphids, the Southern or Asian ladybug also bites people and nibbles fruit. During the fall they are more likely to invade homes in search of a warm place to spend the winter.
Yikes! Apparently there's a monkey lab in my own backyard, AND the monkeys and the people who work there are infected w/ Simian Foamy Virus:
At least 68 of 81 workers at the Sir Frederick Banting Research Centre at Tunney's Pasture had blood tests in late July for the Simian Foamy Virus, which is present in about 80 per cent of the centre's 275 macaque monkeys.
According to this article, though, it doesn't seem to be a worry:
There are three groups of retroviruses known to infect humans: Foamy virus has not been linked to human or animal disease to date.
. . . I just hope no ones decides to let the monkeys loose!
09:38 |
2001/10/15
15:19 |
14:48 |
The pilot project is a waste of money. And spending any resources on extending light rail to the airport, Hull, Barrhaven and Kanata is a similar waste of money," Mr. Hunter said.
. . . However, Toronto's GO Train is pretty effecitve.
14:36 |
11:14 |
09:10 |
2001/10/12
At the Pistol Parlor Inc. in East Greenbush, N.Y., owner Ed Ott called sales "fantastic" - about 40 per cent above normal. He said he sold about 500 guns between Sept. 11 and Sept. 30. . . . as if more small arms is what the world needs.
09:20 |
08:49 |
2001/10/11
. . . Microsoft's dominance on the desktop is being challenged by AOL Time Warner and Yahoo. Their competing IM programs mean another brand sits on the desktop, a situation that sets off alarms in Redmond, Wash.
09:55 |
09:50 |
2001/10/10
The weekend home in the 'shwa was pretty quiet, but nice. I hung out w/ Rich, Duff, Dan, and friends, and visited an uncle I haven't seen for a while. Did the fam thing -- fun -- and read Camus' The Outsider -- somewhat depressing.
09:20 |
2001/10/09
The RCMP, meanwhile, continues to encourage people with information that might assist with the investigation of the attacks, or shed light on financial transactions related to terrorist activities, to call its tip line at 1-888-349-9963.
12:11 |
"Reimaging is relatively standard in the industry and every single customer has a custom image of some type," said Mark Romanowski, a senior vice president with New York-based technology consultant AMC. "For somebody to say 'pay them twice because I have to reimage,' that's nuts."
09:39 |
2001/10/05
The TAG files were compiled on a specially configured Microsoft Access database that "proved very successful in capturing and analyzing intelligence," says a police report on the operation, made public at the APEC inquiry.
15:20 |
"As the PC market gets more and more saturated, I think PC vendors and Intel are looking at ways to get people to replace their machines," said Fara Yale, chief analyst in the removable and floppy disk-drive market. "This is probably part of their plan."
. . . or more likely b/c files are just getting so big?
14:42 |
I think I saw Trevor Cavanagh at lunch today. I met him last year when I was in Ottawa, so maybe I should try and track him down again.
13:21 |
2001/10/04
HP's Richard said the use of Linux--version 7 of Mandrake's distribution, in this case--was important because low-level changes could be made easily to the software, and then the alterations could be shared freely with other scientists, something that would have required a special agreement with Microsoft if Windows had been used.
15:24 |
2001/10/03
Sitting in front of a computer all day -- thanks to my new job -- I end up reading a lot of articles to break monotony and return to my work refreshed ;)
Here's some interesting ones of late . . .
From this article about Microsoft security holes:
Pescatore likened Microsoft's approach to running a bungee-jumping concession. "You probably ought to make the rubber band a little short," he said. "What Microsoft has always done in the past is give a really big rubber band and say, 'Oops, we heard a splat. Here's how you can shorten the rubber band.'"
From The Zen of Poor:
The Zen of poor: freedom from want, from materialism and consumerism, freedom to create a lifestyle close to the earth, freedom to live day to day, hand to mouth, no future for which to save, the ability to live for now, to live for the day, to experience each moment. My life being poor has become amazingly simple. Don't shop, don't spend. Don't want, no need to shop. My children have even learned that asking for things is fruitless 'cause "Mom doesn't have any money." Desiring stuff is fruitless, also. You don't want television, let alone cable. You don't want bioengineering because vegetable gardens are free and more nutritious. You certainly don't want Republicans because they will make obtaining
the simplest of necessities impossible.
16:46 |
2001/10/01
Article about the end of free services on the internet.
A site to track the end of free services: The End of Free.
15:19 |
Anyhow, I'll be back in the 'shwa for the upcoming long weekend . . . As for this past weekend, it was pretty good. Danielle was visiting her sister, so we all met up for a bit. Scooted around town chasing down odds and ends, and dEb had a housewarming party on Saturday night.
09:16 |