From the "here and now" Department ::

The latest provincial economic report from the Toronto Dominion Bank would suggest the boom in Western Canada has peaked, and it may well have but there are still hundreds of jobs going unfilled. A large part of the reason the jobs are going unfilled is that the housing situation is a bit tight. The situation is worse in the larger centres of Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge. Of course that's where most of the jobs are but there is still lots of work available for the taking amongst the hundreds of communities scattered throughout Alberta.

So just how do you go about finding accommodation if you're several hundred if not thousands of miles from the action. If you can afford the luxury of sending out a friend or family member to do the scouting you likely have a good chance of wedging yourself into the Alberta economy. If that isn't an option then you're going to have to check out the Canadian Community Newspaper Association database of newspaper websites to see what's happening. Many of these are only published once a week so it may be more effective to find the place where you want to live and then post a job wanted or accommodation wanted classified ad. Google Earth will give you a pretty good bird's eye view of Alberta and can help you get your bearings when going through the community newspapers.

One other solution to finding accommodation would be to join a freecycle group in the community or communities you're interested in and post an accommodation wanted ad to the newsgroup. You'll have a pretty good chance of finding something that may not be on the market yet avoiding the annoyance of fighting the crowds of others scrambling for the somewhat scant listings of accommodations available in the classifieds. Contacting real estate agents advertising in the community newspapers might get you results too. Real estate agents often know of rental properties as they usually trade hands through the agents. The key here is to get creative with your search and research.

Unskilled labour shouldn't have any problem getting CAN $12.00 to $17.00 an hour but be prepared to pay at least a thousand dollars a month for modest accommodations. Smaller centres will likely give the best chance of finding a decent paying job coupled with somewhat better housing availability. If it's oilfield work you're after then you're going to have to have what they refer to out here as safety tickets. This link to the Grande Prairie Regional College explains exactly what safety tickets are all about. They are, generally speaking, pretty easy to get and it's relatively easy to find a weekend course throuout Alberta that will ultimately provide you with the necessary tickets. Other than your safety tickets, steel toed boots are a common requirement. With your new boots and your freshly minted safety tickets you're ready to hit the pavement and land that dream job. Pack a lunch while you're out job hunting as it's not uncommon to get hired on the spot.

As for skilled tradesman the market is pretty much wide open no matter if you're interested in the larger cities or if smaller communities are more to your liking. CAN $20.00 to $60.00 or more an hour is generally what a skilled tradesman can expect in remuneration. Union jobs are a bit of a rarity in Alberta compared to the rest of the country but companies here tend to be a lot more generous as well. The ambitious will have no trouble making a good living in Alberta while slackers are more than likely to get skidded - (fired) - in short order.

Those seeking jobs or careers in the financial, business, legal, and technology sectors have much less choice when it comes to places to work as this kind of work is pretty much confined to the larger cities. Jobs in education and or the medical sectors of the economy are often available in smaller communities and the pay is generally on par with what you would expect in the larger cities with the added advantage of cheaper accommodations and living expenses. If you're thinking of moving to Alberta for work don't overlook the smaller communities as there is plenty of work available in rural Alberta. Many of the smaller communities in Alberta are often right in the middle of the oilfields.

To aid those searching for work in Alberta I've put together a couple of directories that many people have put to good use. The employment directories I've compiled point directly to the job opportunities page of many of the best companies to work for in Alberta. Check out the links below for a gold mine of Alberta job opportunities.

• Corporations Now Hiring - a directory of some of the best companies to work for in Alberta with the links pointing directly to jobs available. I don't know of another list like it.
• Education Jobs Available in Alberta - a directory of all the school divisions in Alberta with links pointing directly to jobs available.
• Employment Agencies and Job Boards - an extensive directory of links to job seeker sites and employment agencies with a presence in Alberta.
• Job Hunting Resources - a directory of links pointing to sites offering government assistance, resume writing, example cover letters and things of that nature. Well worth checking out for the serious job seeker.

Although this is by no means a comprehensive way of getting a job in Alberta it should point you in the right direction and give you a bit of an advantage over the masses migrating to Alberta to take advantage of the still booming economy. Alberta offers a lot more than just good paying jobs and has benefits not found anywhere else in Canada. Some of the lowest taxes in Canada would likely take the top spot on the list while outdoor recreation wouldn't be too far behind. Hope to see you soon and lots of luck with your job and accommodation search!

From the "What Day Is It" Department ::

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live a very long time? With advances in technology, I believe there are people 60 years old today that could conceivably live to a 150 or more years. Spare parts for worn out body components are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Things like the latest in exoskeleton assitance could even allow a 125-year-old person to be a productive member of the community and not have to rely on offspring or the spring off of offspring to provide some sort of monetary contribution to keep the blood pumping.

I would think the caring family of Cruz Hernandez was the biggest reason she was able to celebrate her 128th birthday yesterday. (Readily available exoskeleton equipment isn't that easy to come by in El Salvador.) It's somewhat ironic that El Salvador, the scene of a brutal civil war that killed tens of thousands - actually a clash between American and Cuban ideology - and the home to the most barbaric of street gangs - the Mara Salvatrucha or MS13 who kill for pleasure and not only profit - would also be home to the worlds oldest living citizen. What are the chances of that happening again anytime soon?

Anyhow..., think for a minute what it would be like to live for a very long time. I have a grandmother who is going to be 99 this summer and what keeps her going is that she still gets out and does things. She's looking forward to her 100th birthday and that's something else that keeps her going. If you don't have something to look forward to then you start dying from the inside out. I could see Gram living for another 10 or more years without TOO much difficulty.

Just thinking of all the things that could kill you is enough to avoid many of the causes of cerebral atrophy. Atrophy of any body part is generally the result of inactivity. Dodging, or otherwise avoiding becoming a victim of reckless actions by yourself or others has a sizable "luck" factor involved as it relates to survivability. You could be on your way home from work, minding your own business and some idiot running a red light on his way to pick up a lottery ticket could center punch you and your sub-compact gas saver - killing you that way - or provide you with a near miss that would be enough to stop your heart - flat lining you by way of a heart attack. 36,525 days is a long time to go without screwing up or having someone else screw up on your behalf to the detriment of your further existence.

What I wonder about is what I would do to keep myself occupied for a 150 years. There's a lot of things I would still like to accomplish but there's a ton of obstacles that are making that exceedingly difficult. One thing I'm absolutely certain of though is that sitting around watching mindless TV is not enough stimulation to keep all parts functioning in harmony. (The only TV I watch is the Discovery Channel and the Comedy Network - even some of that is somewhat mindless.)

The only thing that's been proven to give you a few extra years is reducing your calorie intake. There's not going to be any fat folks in the Sesquicentennial Club. Nope, it's going to be skinny people with bionic eyes and ears outfitted with a robust exoskeleton and a disproportionate allotment of luck that are going to make up the core membership.

Will they be the equivalent of brainiac cucarachas totally wired for survival? It's hard to say. I just can't imagine what reality TV is going to be like when that 60-year-old today turns 150 in another 90 years but I'll bet that 150-year-old won't be watching it.

From the "Happy Birthday" Department ::

Apple Computer Turns 30 Today

I finally bought a Mac the other day. Actually it was on the fifth anniversary of the launch of their highly regarded Mac OS X - pure coincidence really. After jumping in head first and being wet for a little over a week I've given a lot of thought as to why it doesn't have a lot more market share.

After all..., OS X relies heavily on FreeBSD, perhaps the single most significant unsung hero of the whole technology revolution - it's well thought out, reasonably secure (even more so if you go for OpenBSD), easy to understand (a ton more logical in it's layout and design than Windows, and I'm an MCSE), and the Mac OS X flavor is much easier to look at (I'm also a graphic designer). Speaking of which, the "X" graphic you see above is the "X" from a font that I'm working on - I'm calling it "Flat Broke Mountain" - while I toil away at font design here in the middle of "Oil Patch Central", those around me are pulling in obscene wages for mindless "Oil Patch Jobs". That's telling you, in a round about way, it isn't going to be a "free font".

OK..., let's get back on track here. The reason I think it hasn't caught on the way it should have is that it relies, for the most part, on proprietary hardware. If you could imagine a scenario where Mac OS X ran on exactly the same commodity hardware as Windows? Put a reasonable price on each operating system - say a hundred bucks or so - and I would suspect that Mac OS X would garner a much larger slice of the consumer operating system market than it currently does. For right now it might be a "dual boot" situation but with the advances in CPU design it could be nothing more than a "hot key" switch in a very short period of time. We're almost there right now and with the ongoing delays of Microsoft's Vista it just may be the dawn of a new era where the Mac moves beyond "niche" market.

One of these, for the moment, fictitious machines would really appeal to somebody like me and I'm assuming a lot of others. In the graphic design industry the Mac has been "thee" machine for quite some time except in the "sign making" sector of the graphic design industry where it's been the PC that has ruled. As near as I can tell, the reason for this discrepancy has been the fact that PC's where the first to have the capability to drive vinyl cutting plotters and CNC 3D routers while the Macs where tweaked to provide optimal output to paper in it's many forms.

As much as I like my new Mac Mini I still require a PC for CorelDraw X3 and the ability to send those files to my Summa vinyl cutter. I'm trying to make the total switch but Adobe Illustrator just doesn't compare to CorelDraw in ease of use or feature set - a limp apology to all you Adobe zealots out there but it's a bitter reality - Illustrator is highly overrated.

Forget all the nonesense about Macs only being good for doing graphics or that there is limited software available or any of the reasons you might come up with for not considering a Mac. I've been involved in the IT/Technology/Computer industry for the better part of fifteen years and I only wish I would have taken up a Mac many years ago. I'm pretty certain it would have had a positive impact on the love/hate relationship I've had with technology over the years.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'McNugget' - and you just know those are good for you.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Apple d00d - you're bad to the core!

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From the "Bottom Rung" Department ::

Labour Shortage Puzzling to Skilled Immigrants

This is one area of the country's operation that needs some serious thought and a complete overhaul. The way it works right now is just plain wrong! On the one hand we have government sponsored campaigns to attract skilled immigrants then that hand gets washed of any further responsibility. Then the other hand gets involved and the whole reason for being degrades into a typical boondoggle.

Personally, I think this is no better than any other cruel crime against humanity. We skim off the most talented individuals from countries that can ill afford to have them leave and then, if they survive the insane Immigration Canada selection process, we put them behind the wheel of a taxi-cab if they can drive or a mop bucket if they can't.

If we really need taxi-cab drivers that bad then we should be landing "real" taxi-cab drivers. The guys that make a living transporting people in their home countries. My experience abroad has been that these guys are, without doubt, professionals in the strictest sense.

Then there's the shortage of skilled exotic dancers who somehow still get fast-tracked through Immigration Canada's tangle. Steven Harper needs to put an end to that in a real hurry. The "skin business" has been historically linked to the underworld which makes their arrangement with Immigration Canada all that more difficult to digest.

I guess that about does it for today's rant. I've been busy on many other projects and this project has suffered a bit from lack of attention. Keep coming back though..., interesting things are on the way.

From the "I'll Be Darned" Department ::

Prime Minister Harper Wants Immigrants Credentials Recognized

It's about time some bold thinking happened at Immigration Canada. In fact it's twenty years or more overdue. It's going to be interesting to see how long before some real action takes place. I'm betting it won't be long just because it has to happen. It's funny that this headline trailed my initial post by about six hours. I didn't think anybody ever read any of this - I sure don't get many comments.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

Election 2006

I have avoided covering the 2006 Election campaign on this site for a number of reasons. None of them have anything to do with Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act. It mostly has a lot to do with me being up to my eyeballs in family 'tasks', not the least of which is being evicted from my 'office' so that it can be resurrected once again as the 'spare room' for the new boarder that's been brought in to assist with the 'bills'. That may sound like a straight forward task but, believe me, it's been a grind!

With that out of the way, lets get back to "Election 2006". I'm not going to embarrass myself by offering up some kind of prediction of what's going to happen on Monday night. Canadian voters can be a fickle bunch. Couple that with the fact that our parliamentary system revolves around a "first past the pole (or is it poll?)" working model and it's nothing short of a horse race. Sensible folk don't pay much attention to horse races.

I do think the Liberal party needs to be kicked out on their collective butts and the gamblers among us believe that's going to happen. Me, not being a gambler, can only hope that's going to happen. I've lived in parts of Canada where the politics is downright weird - BC for instance - and in Central America - where politics can incite crimes of passion and there's one thing I can assure you and that's this. Corrupt politicians are not the sole domain of Third World countries. I could see early in the campaign that the Liberals were going down as there was just too much outcry over their lying thieving ways. Of course that was based entirely on overheard conversations in the heart of Alberta where the sky is a "Conservative Blue".

In any case..., I just rehash the headlines and felt certain there was little I, or any number of bloggers, could do to influence the election in any meaningful way. Maybe tomorrow some blogger out in the Maritimes will contravene Section 329 and feed election results so that us Westerners can decide if we need to get out of the house on a frosty winter evening to trudge down to the voting booth. It's something those east of Mountain Standard Time just don't quite understand.

I should point something though. I find it odd that the Liberals would choose to use the old "suicide bomber" routine in this campaign. What were they thinking? If we're going down anyhow lets take as many of them with us as we can? Paul Martin has even carried the routine to the same extreme as "Comical Ali" of "The Invasion of Iraq" fame who would get into the television cameras and proclaim that Saddam Hussein would have Americans begging for mercy from the almighty Allah. Comical Ali ignored insane odds in much the same way Paul Martin is ignoring the overwhelming odds against him. These dictatorial types seem to really be out of touch with the pulse of the populace.

Anyhow..., I have to run. Family tasks beckon!

For any of you out there that need any reasons for not voting Liberal the Toronto Sun has offered up 218 reasons. It's worth the read.

Hasta La L8r Señor Mr. and Mississauga (I stole that from some journalist who probably stole it from someone else. The shame of it all!)

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This was just way too ironic to pass up. I receive an interesting newsletter from Marilyn Jones of Mediamag e-Zine, a well done site out of Edmonton geared towards media interests in and around the Capital City.

It's quite a lengthy newsletter and as I was scanning the various headings I ran across this one:

OCTOBER 19 TO 21
NETSPEED CONFERENCE for librarians, technicians and knowledge workers. Presentations on SuperNet, digital production, copyright, privacy and more. Sponsored by the Alberta library. To be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Edmonton. For more info see the "Conference Website".

The mere mention of "librarians" and "privacy" in the same paragraph immediately grabbed my full and undivided attention. Should you be interested in finding out exactly why this would have been so noteworthy to me, check out this site I put together regarding my involvement in the unfortunate keystroke logging incident at Parkland Regional Library.

While checking out the link to the "Conference Website" I noticed that one of the plenary speakers was Dr. Michael Geist from the University of Ottawa - Faculty of Law. A quick scan of the Adobe Acrobat PDF linked from the Alberta Library website indicated, on page four, that Dr. Geist would be speaking on a touchy subject considering Parkland Regional Library is a member of the Board of Directors at the Alberta Library consortium. From the conference program I provide the following:

Dr. Michael Geist   Room: SALON A
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law University of Ottawa

Michael Geist will identify the challenges that lie ahead for Canadian privacy law in light of emerging new technologies. A pending Parliamentary review of Canada’s national privacy legislation in 2006, combined with a growing number of existing provincial privacy laws, have created a challenging national privacy patchwork. New technologies such as radio frequency identification tags, web cam video surveillance, keystroke logging, and Internet telephony are stretching the boundaries of current privacy legislation. Michael will focus on how policy makers can adjust to emerging technologies and how organizations can anticipate the future shifts of the Canadian privacy law landscape so that they can be ready for future privacy compliance requirements.

I sat back for a moment to absorb some of the irony this provided and that's when I noticed that the "contact for more information person" was Mary Jane Bilsland, whom I worked with at Parkland Regional Library and who was also the sister of Parkland Regional Library's legal counsel, John Bilsland. Throw some more irony on the irony blaze why don't ya! I just about flipped my chair over backwards when I leaned back laughing.

Anyhow..., I would have loved to have been there in some shape or form. For one thing, I respect Dr. Michael Geist for his tireless pursuit of privacy rights for the individual but from the personal entertainment angle, being there would have been priceless.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Foul Smelling Nugget' - and the odour appears to be coming from behind some library bookshelf.

Hasta La L8r Señor Gordo Low-life Scumbag

This is a letter that appeared in the Red Deer Advocate a week ago Friday. It was passed on to me by a good friend who doesn't have a computer and reads two or three newspapers a day. I thought the letter was well written and provoked some serious thought. Let me know what you think of it by supplying a comment at the end of this posting.

Because I couldn't figure out how to link to the letter at the Red Deer Advocate I've reproduced it here:

Is oil more important than people?

Letters - Red Deer Advocate - September 9, 2005

• "Recent news stories printed in the Advocate covered a variety of topics related to hurricane Katrina: the environmental devastation, the human suffering and the economic losses.
  
  However, I was still left with a lot of unanswered questions such as, why did President Bush take five days to decide "the results (of the emergency efforts) are not acceptable?"
  
  Thoughts of the days following the 9-11 disaster rang in my head.
  
  Within 24 hours other countries, including Canada, were calling to offer help, but the U.S. government held them at bay.
  
  The same unexplained attitude followed in the wake of Katrina.
  
  While people were dying horrible deaths and there was anarchy on the streets, the Bush administration's Condoleezza Rice told Pierre Pettigrew the U.S. would accept Canada's offer to help "as soon as needs were assessed."
  
  The second question that popped into my head involved a plea from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), which called upon its 26 member countries to release reserves for shipment as aide to the U.S.
  
  Why is sending oil more important than helping humans in distress?
  
  Canada's prime minister was forced to admit that Canada did not have a lot of reserve supply. However, Premier Ralph Klein, when asked, agreed to pull out the regulatory stops - possibly putting the lives of Albertans at risk - and send whatever could be squeezed into already "at capacity" pipelines.
  
  The IEA said 91,000 barrels per day (b/d) should be Canada's share but even by suspending limits put on individual shippers Neil McCrank, Alberta EUB chair, could only offer 18,000 to 30,000 extra barrels/day for direct shipment to the Gulf Coast.
  
  Canadians, always the great humanitarians, did not give our NAFTA agreement a second thought apparently, nor did anyone stop to ask why, when people were dying of thirst and rioting and lawlessness were still going on in the streets, was there was such an urgent need for oil supplies so quickly.
  
  Well, according to my research of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other websites, the U.S. (unlike Canada) has a huge Strategic Petroleum Reserve which in August of 2005 amounted to 727 million barrels. This is stored in various locations across the country.
  
  Following hurricane Ivan in 2002, which damaged off-shore rigs and pipelines, the DOE released oil from this reserve to assist in reconstruction and transportation.
  
  A news release on the DOE website dated Sept. 3 said that the president had authorized the release for sale to refineries an initial 30 million barrels.
  
  Also, suppliers were told that "winter" gasoline supplies could be released immediately as could diesel fuel containing more than 500 ppm of sulfur and dyed (farm) diesel to ease the shortage of refined fuels in the area.
  
  Homeland Security waved the Jones Act restrictions on the transportation by ship of petroleum, gasoline and other refined petroleum products so ships could replace supplies normally carried by the now damaged pipelines.
  
  The really interesting revelation on the DOE website was from Sept. 1 - just a few days after Katrina hit land. The department is soliciting public comment on a proposal to expand the existing Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) from 700 million to one billion barrels. The public has until Oct. 21 to respond.
  
  So the president will release 30 million barrels from the SPR and the IEA will release an additional 60 million barrels into the US market and the proposed increased storage capacity for the SPR just happens to be an extra 30 million more than the capacity in August of 2005. Is that a coincidence, or what?
  
  At least some of these IEA-released products will be refined products. There really is no immediate crude oil shortage. The problem, as in Canada, is that the US has not built a new refinery in the past 25 years. So what will Bush do with the extra 30,000 b/d of crude from Alberta?
  
  That brings me to my next question which is: are Prime Minister Paul Martin and Klein really that ignorant of the implications, under our NAFTA agreement, of increasing the flow of oil to the U.S.?
  
  NAFTA rules say that whenever we increase our oil shipments to the U.S., that new volume then becomes the baseline volume which we must maintain - possibly even while we freeze to death in the dark in Alberta.
  
  Or, have both our provincial and federal governments already signed some secret deal with the U.S. and Big Oil and this natural disaster was just a wonderful excuse to hoodwink or Bush-whack the generous-to-a-fault Canadian public? One final burning question keeps rattling about in my brain.
  
  Why did it take so long to organize humanitarian aide to the poor, the elderly and the handicapped and such a short time to figure out how to make up the oil flow that was cut off when oil platforms and pipelines were damaged?
  
  That this president would Bush-whack Canadians out of our oil is one thing. That he would allow his own people to suffer needlessly: well, I don't want to think about that.
  
  Dorene Rew
  Red Deer

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'oil stained nugget' - careful with those ones.

Hasta La L8r Señor Oil dOOd Types!

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Privacy ::
The "E-Commerce Times" Commentary

Decent commentary from a Toronto E-Lawyer who also does the Laws of Dot Com site.

Privacy ::
"Lacombe Globe" Story on the Keystroke Logging Incident

It's a sad day when libraries decide to spy on their employees!

Privacy ::
"Red Deer Advocate" Coverage on the Parkland Regional Library Keystroke Logging Fiasco

Ladies and gentleman, your tax dollars at work!

Privacy ::
Another Take On the Use of Keystroke Loggers in the Workplace

I just can't help but agree with this guy!

Privacy ::
A Primer on Keystroke Loggers

Do you sleep well at night?

A couple of weeks ago the Privacy Commissioner for the Province of Alberta published his ruling on the use of keystroke logging software for employee performance monitoring.(PDF) His decision clearly indicated that keystroke logging software was excessive, intrusive, invasive, and indiscriminate in the information it gathers. Curiously, Parkland Regional Library's flawed logic attempts to defend keystroke logging as an objective measure of employee performance. For anybody interested on why this is flawed logic I would suggest a scan of the comments on Slashdot concerning this matter.

Anyhow..., the Privacy Commissioner for the Province of Alberta ruled that the information collected by way of the STARR keystroke logger was stored in a secure manner. Unfortunately, a wee bit of research into this matter would have clearly shown that the information gathered was, in fact, stored as "clear text" html files easily viewed by anyone with a web browser contrary to what's been reported. That would be just about anyone with a computer hooked to the Internet these days. As far as this genre of software is concerned I would have to say that the IOPUS STARR product is amateurish at best and if nothing else, sleazy.

The deployment of the STARR software on the Parkland Regional Library network was poorly implemented and completely unnecessary. Curiously, software I provided for Parkland Regional Library network in the form of the Request Tracker trouble ticketing software provided PRL with everything they needed to monitor employee productivity and much more. Unfortunately, inept management completely missed the opportunity to exploit Request Tracker for 'Human Resource' purposes. This is clearly an example where IT staff have no business whatsoever dabbling in 'human resources' matters.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

So you want to track somebody down. How about getting a 'background check' done on that somebody. No problem! Log into ZabaSearch and type in a name. In an instant you will be greeted with the results of your query to the tune of, year of birth, home address, and home number. For an undisclosed fee you get your background check. Frightening stuff! None of the links for the background check are clickable but it could be that ZabaSearch notices the non-American IP address.

Anyhow..., I typed in the name of a former co-worker and his name, address, year of birth, and home phone number popped up instantly. Google never was able to locate the guy. So far the search is restricted to names of those residing in the US. Wonder how long that's going to last before we can check out our fellow Canadians.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Zaba nugget' - they sound scary!

[Update:] This is scary! Do you remember the Heaven's Gate Cult that comitted mass suicide and did computer work to finance their - uhmm..., I'm stuck for words - 'religion'? Well anyhow, there's a connection that you can read about here.

Hasta La L8r Señor Privacy Seeker