Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Jim, you are always entertaining, I’ll give you that much. When you’re not telling us that the Conservative’s taxable $1200 for parents is the solution to “child poverty”, you try to convince us that the sky isn’t blue, or gas prices aren’t fixed through collusion. It’s the free market that sets prices identically everywhere down to 9/10ths of a cent, don’t you know?

Duffy sets Prentice up and actually gets him to say that there is no collusion in pricing between the oil companies. It is just the gas station looking down the street.

[video]

That’s right Jim, it’s the minimum wage employee working the night shift at my local Shell. “Oh look, Pedro over at Petro Canada has just raised the price again. Damn, I better phone the boss. What an asshole.”

And to think, this dude is the one in charge of eventually legislating away the Internet with no Net Neutrality bills, and the pending Copyright Act. “Why no, Bell, Telus, and Rogers don’t collude…” just wait for him to say it, I suppose.

Remember the Sony Rootkit scandal where they broke peoples’ computers in an effort to enforce their copyrighted discs? Well, Judge not, lest Yous be Judged, Sony BMG.

–
Hat tip to Flaming the Bear

Answers? I meant Stonewalling, sorry for the typo.

Feds Slow To Respond

By Sarah Mills
Updated May 13, 2008 - 2:58pm

The federal Infrastructure Minister is all but ignoring Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco’s plea for action on the Building Canada fund.

Fiacco insists the government is dragging it’s feet on handing out the infrastructure funding and that the construction delays on the IPSCO Place redevelopment will cost an additional million dollars.

But Lawrence Cannon won’t speak to the media on the issue.

Instead releasing a written statement that acknowledges IPSCO Place was agreed to be a priority, but insists the process is continuing WITHOUT delay, following it’s intended course.

Other Saskatchewan Conservative MP’s have not returned calls for comment either. Gerry Ritz, who made the announcement on behalf of Cannon, declined to comment.

I added some bold text to highlight the problem.

Here’s an interesting idea worth participating in. Jon Swift is (was?) a popular blogger from the United States, who has been missing since the Ides of March (approximately). Prior to his disappearance from the blogosphere (and possibly this earth) he co-ordinated a liberal blogrolling event to counteract Blogroll Amnesty Day started by some hotshots without respect for blogging’s grassroots.

If you’re interested in trying to encourage Swift to confirm his location/safety, please also post a link to Simon’s search and maybe Swift’s blog as well.

UPDATE: Jon is apparently still well, just has suspended blogging without going through the fanfare of an announcement.

Antivirus software is generally crud. I say this as a computer programmer with a degree, and over a decade’s worth of experience in cleaning viruses off computers. I would never pay for antivirus software for my home computer (at work, possibly). In fact, I haven’t had to pay for AV software yet. I became jaded years ago while reading VMyths by Rob R. He confirmed what I suspected - that the AV update system model is broken, and not the best that programmers can offer customers.

Here are some free AV products (that aren’t always easy for novices to find):

• AVG Free - and yes it’s still free past May 2008, using their free Version 8.0. You just have to look past the Trial version.
• Avira AntiVir is also free.
• ClamWin is based on ClamAV for Linux.

Also required when using a free AV product, is a free Spyware detector/remover. Spyware is a mean (malicious) bit of softWARE that may not spread like a virus, but ruins your computer at least as well as a virus. Antivirus companies tend to charge for spyware detection (which is stupid, since spyware breaks a computer just as well as a virus, and it can be detected in much the same way as viruses are), and it’s how they convince more people to pay for “premium” products. Why bother? There are volunteers out there who don’t charge anything, and ask only for what you can afford to pay them at your discretion.

I’ve only had one virus infect any of my own computers or disks since I started back in 1984. (It’s possible some got through, and were never detected, but that’s VERY unlikely because they are usually easy to spot due to poor programming or intentional destruction/extortion/bragging caused by the well written ones). I’ve downloaded music and TV since the late 1990s using a variety of services, mostly P2P. And the only time a virus infected my computer, it was from surfing to a malicious webpage with an insecure version of Java installed on my computer. AVG detected it in an automated daily scan, and I was back to normal, feeling slightly more vulnerable, but in reality unscathed.

/End bragging

(more…)

“Charlie Bartlett” [7/10] There’s something disturbing about this film. A lot of things actually. However, it’s not a bad teen movie.
“The Producers” (1968) [5/10] Not sure if it’s good, because some parts are so bad they are good.

New York Times bestseller Paul.
At least he’s at the top of some list.

–
Hat tip to Zaphod

I got some free potting soil, so I refreshed some of my indoor plants, and put some pots on the balcony to get them ready for some tiny veggies or herbs. I tried planning a couple radishes, and a couple yellow peppers, so hopefully they sprout. There is plenty of rain forecast for this week. I still need to get out to my garden and plant some things. They didn’t turn the water on a few days ago, because of freezing nights.

==

On Saturday I dropped my crippled bike off at Dutch Cycle. Even though I got there at about 2 minutes past closing time at 4PM, they were nice and let me in the door. The missing wheel can apparently be repaired for about $35 (used), and I’m hoping they throw in a speedometer magnet with that too. I can possibly get it on Tuesday, but I bet it will turn into Saturday or Wednesday if I’m lucky.

Saturday evening I dragged two friends out, to Bushwakker’s, and I had potato skins. I cut off a bite, and when it touched my lip, it burned it. Then I was in that awkward situation I hate, where you know if you finish putting the food into your mouth you’re going to burn it, but if you spit it out, you’re going to look rude. I went with the pull the food out of my mouth with my fingers technique.

Sometime shortly before or after that I was bugged for swirling my water glass around the top of the table whilst making a “wooo” sound. So I proceeded to prove that I was still sober by stacking a salt shaker on top of two glasses, then a pepper shaker on top of the salt, then a menu, and then tenting two coasters on top of it all. I threatened to balance a full water glass on top of the menu, to cries of objection. I wouldn’t have really done it (because I couldn’t have).