Almontage

“Working After Retirement” Myths

2011-09-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

I read recently that a substantial percentage of Canadian Boomers expect to continue working for pay after the “normal” retirement age of 65. In doing this, they expect to supplement their retirement income, stay in good health and satisfy their social needs while avoiding boredom. I’m wondering if this magical post retirement life they envision for themselves is largely a mythical one. A Magical Mythical Tour perhaps?

I admit to some prejudice in this matter because I retired early at the tender age of 58. After a two year volunteer “job” in Almonte (doing some of the things I used to get paid for for free) I hung up my food technologist’s hat for good. After nearly 5 years of full time retirement I am certainly not anxious to work again – even part time.

Let’s have a look at some of the working post-retirement myths as I have experienced them at least.

You Can Work At Your Old Job Part Time

Well maybe. I have to admit that when I first brought up the topic of retirement, part time work was suggested by my employer as a means of helping them adjust to my leaving. However, I did not accept for two reasons – first because I’d still be doing the same stressful stuff, and second working “half time” meant 50% of the salary for 75% of the hours. The company would have wanted me to be there half the day or more 5 days a week, to suit their convenience. They weren’t about to cancel meetings on Friday or Monday because I didn’t want to come in to work those days. And I know of at least one half time person who was terminated because she didn’t want to return full time.

You Can Find a New and Fulfilling Part Time Job

I did the two year part time volunteer job in Almonte and I’m sure I could have been paid minimum wage to do it. The small company I worked for really couldn’t have afforded me otherwise. It was fun helping them get Organic Certification but at other times I ended up working in Production a couple of days a week to help out. Finally I just decided it was better to retire full time.

You’ll Be In Better Health If You Keep on Working

I don’t think so. How can you be in better health if you are stressed out with a daily commute, lots of meetings and arbitrary deadlines set by people who aren’t doing the work? I’ve seen some stats that show that the earlier you retire, the longer you’re going to live. I know I’ve been far less depressed as a retiree.

You Need the Social Contacts of the Workplace

I’ve been fine without them thanks. I don’t think it’s healthy to depend on those you work with to give you a rich social life. I still get out to coffee with the boys, and I have the time now to meet and greet whomever I like.

You Must Work to Stave Off Boredom

I wonder if the person who wrote this has ever been retired. In my retirement years I’ve learned a new computer operating system, fixed dozens of computers for people in the neighborhood, traveled extensively in the offseason, hung out with my grandkids. I have time to blog, read all the books I want, moderate an Internet forum. Working was far more boring than retirement – unless you find writing reports, filling out forms, going to meetings and sitting in a traffic jam an antidote for boredom.

Forgive me for saying this, but I wonder if all the lip service paid to working after 65 isn’t just an excuse for the fact that people haven’t planned well enough financially to do anything else but work. Just my $0.02.

The End of Early Retirement?

2011-04-19T20:57:00.001-04:00

I’m rapidly approaching the “normal” retirement age. The thing is, I’ve already been retired for 6 years.

Recently I read a newspaper article about how the concept of early (or for that matter normal) retirement is dead. Because we are all living longer, we should want to keep on with a fulfilling career after 65, and not retire as our parents and grandparents may have done.

There were some interesting examples of such paragons of industry, to wit:

A former psychologist now earning his bread as a renovations carpenter.
An ex PR manager who tried making it as a professional house sitter, but had to take some work in her former field as a proofreader.
A guy who formerly managed a major clothing retailing firm, now employed as a tax preparer / construction worker.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see these “ stimulating positions” as any reason to continue on in the workforce if you don’t have to financially.

I worked a couple of years after retirement as a volunteer for a small company in the coffee business, but eventually decided I didn’t want to get up early and work 10 hour days if I didn’t have to.

In addition to this, after my wife and I retired we had a bunch of life issues – illness and death of her sister, aging and deaths of both my parents, her mother getting older. These took up a lot of time and thought and I really don’t see how we’d have done it all if we were committed to earning a paycheck in our senior years. Besides, we’ve got grandchildren now.

I acquired some pretty significant IT skills over my years at work and I now put those to good use helping others in the neighborhood. Most of my “clients” are around my age, and they trust me as much as the younger geeks they’d have to deal with otherwise. I suppose I could make a few bucks charging them for my services but hey – I don’t really need to, and they really can’t afford to pay me for whatever value I bring to their problems.

I have a lot of sympathy for those folks who haven’t been able to save enough to retire and may have to keep on working into their 70s. But those of us who can retire should get out of the way of people who really need to work.

There’s plenty of stuff to do in retirement, and you don’t always have to get up early to find it.

A Technical Trip Down Memory Lane

2011-04-05T13:37:00.000-04:00

On June 2, 1969 I left behind my university days and embarked on a professional career as an Associate Chemist with General Foods Ltd. Research in Cobourg Ontario.

I can remember getting my first Retirement Plan summary with GF and marveling that my normal retirement date would be November 2011. It seemed unreal that one could see 42 years into the future. It’s far less mind-boggling to look back over that number of years today.

The way of life I experienced then is gone physically now. The R&D department in Canada was eliminated in the early 1990s. The mighty GF plant complex in Cobourg closed a couple of years ago. And even GF itself disappeared as an independent company over 20 years ago – merged with Kraft, GF lost its corporate name by 1995. The lovely 60s era lab complex where I learned my trade is now an ambulance building.

Even in places where food company R&D remains in place in Canada, the entire activity has been so changed that one would no longer even recognize the same sort of work in the late 1960s – who did it, how we did it, how we got paid, how we were managed. Maybe it’d be fun to take a little trip down memory lane.

To begin with, food Research was an overwhelming male activity in those days. Out of a 40 person staff we had maybe 5 women, and only 2 would have been considered professional. One was a home economist and the other a pioneering food scientist from UBC. Today the proportion would be 100% reversed.

Most degrees in the lab were in Chemistry, not Food Science and the job titles reflected that fact. Today almost every food R&D professional would be a graduate of a Food Science program at Guelph, Laval, UBC, Manitoba..you get the idea.

We were a paper based department. We wrote our lab notes and product formulations by hand into bound notebooks. Our work was read and witnessed by our peers and supervisors. Our formulations were written to three figure accuracy, then checked and typed by a special formula control department which created a second formula for costing that went to 4 decimal places. We could not sort our formula listing except mentally, we were not directly responsible for ingredient line declaration, and we had only a foggy idea of how much our creation would cost. I cannot imagine how any food technologist could work like this today.

Our communication was mainly by telephone, although nobody had a direct line to the outside. We hand wrote memos which were then typed (and often corrected) by our secretarial staff. If we were in a hurry we had a particularly vile method of writing called a SpeediMemo – three copies, carbon paper. One copy was to keep, two to send, one to get back.

We kept track of our time on cards which we sent to the Research Facilities Supervisor. Each of our projects had a name and number. We got paid once a week by paper check which we had to take to the bank. My first check was around $100 as I recall. My gross pay was close to $130 per week.

We had a 15 minute coffee and /or tea break twice each day. Our coffee was made for us and delivered to the lab by a nice lady. We were supposed to remain at our desks, you see. However the management did not object if we had coffee with co-workers in another lab space as this encouraged “cross-pollination” of ideas.

A typical lab was a large bright room where we had 4-5 desks set up around the walls and the rest of the area consisted of benches and counters where we could weigh, mix ingredients, run tests, etc. Our equipment was unfailingly analog in nature. Balances and test equipment had moving visual displays or paper recording charts. Even digital results such as colorimeter values were obtained by rotating knobs and matching potentiometer needles. The equipment was specifically designed and built for food application – the Amylograph, Farinograph, Hunter Colorimeter, Texturometer.

There were no computers or calculators in general use. The analytical lab had a strange Friden mechanical calculating machine with knobs, switches and thumbwheels. This could do calculations to some accuracy if you could master its eccentricities. Otherwise you stuck to a slide rule or mental math.

The only computer application I saw in the lab was by an older researcher who used a COBOL database structure to file and retrieve his hundreds of competitive evaluation reports. He knew nothing of computers but he liked the logic of the database.

Our laboratory library had a couple of interesting Information Retrieval systems. One was called the McBee card and was used to find the oldest research reports we had in the company. Some of these went back to the early 1940s. You stuck a long needle through a stack of cards. You then gave the deck a shake and the cards that you might be interested in were notched and fell out.

The McBee system had been replaced by some sort of Termatrex app for more recent reports. With Termatrex you placed a bunch of punched plastic sheets on a light viewer and if the light shone through in the right spot you were getting somewhere. I never figured this system out, and to be honest I never saw anyone else use it effectively either. One of our secretaries was pretty good with Termatrex and she could find things if you really needed it.

One last word about our management structure. It was heavily hierarchical and deep. I figure there were at least 4 levels of management in Research alone and probably another 3 up to the President of GF Canada. This doesn’t include all the lateral supervision we had in formula control and time reporting. It’s really amazing we got anything at all done under such a suffocating system.

In spite of all the strangeness above, it was a great time in my life. I was doing some interesting practical work, I learned a tremendous amount from eager young technical colleagues and the veterans who made up the backbone of the laboratory effort. I have never regretted the 5+ years I spent learning my craft in Cobourg Research. Long may it live in my memory.

It’s The Hardware, Stupid

2011-04-03T10:55:00.000-04:00

When I first got involved with Linux - discovered Distrowatch and the joys of downloading and burning CDs - I thought the whole Linux scene was about the software. Man, all those different desktops, music players, office programs…choice was so cool! At one time I had a testbed system with 7 different distros on it, all chainloaded. Oy…

I’ve calmed down a bit since then. My current way of thinking is that the hardware you are working with determines not only what Linux distro you use but how you use it. Here are some examples taken from my computer museum at home:

Antique and Ancient Hardware. This stuff probably ran Windows 98 or even Windows 95. Installing Linux on the oldest machine I have was more a proof of feasibility than anything practical. For machines like this the lightest possible window manager and operating system is a must. Vector Linux has always been a good choice here, although I did have to use Deli Linux for my oldest junker.
Old but Still Useful. This might have a Pentium 4 and up to 1 GB of RAM. Maybe it even ran a primitive version of Windows XP, but I didn’t feel I wanted to be bothered maintaining all the security software. On these machines I just blow off XP and install Mandriva. They work fine for such uses as a music jukebox, or backup photo storage machine. Or one of them can serve as a main system for someone who doesn’t have a computer at all.
Netbook. I have one of these, and the look and feel is about the same as a 2003 desktop. It’s slow and underpowered - handy only for email or light Web surfing when on vacation. Linux is the only solution that makes sense for it, so I use Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Why anyone would want to run Vista or Windows 7 Starter on these types of machines is anybody’s guess.
Fairly New – Runs Linux Only. This is very nice cheap desktop system from 2008 that I use as a backup or alternate in my basement den. It has a dual core processor, lots of RAM and it’s never had anything but Linux installed. Right now it screams along with Mandriva. Fast, powerful, safe, secure, free – what more could you ask?
Aging but Powerful. This is my main desktop system – Pentium Dual Core from 2005 with 3 GB of RAM. It was quite a machine in its day, and I got it as an off lease desktop in 2009. It runs XP Pro and I use it for a few things Linux is not quite up to as yet – tax software, my favorite photo management program come to mind. I do have this machine set up to dual boot with Mandriva, but to be honest I just use XP most of the time. It isn’t worth the aggravation to shut down and reboot to switch operating systems unless I want to rip/burn CDs. I prefer to do that in Linux.
Lights Out. A good description for my newest machine – a notebook with quad core processor, gobs of RAM, huge hard drive, 64 bit Windows 7 O/S. On this machine I’ll never dual boot. It’s not needed at all, since it has the muscle to run virtual machines all day long. I’ve installed Oracle’s VirtualBox and three different Linux distros to play around with, although my principal O/S here will continue to be Windows 7. Virtualization will likely be my way of the future with Linux on the latest hardware.

The Evolution of a Linux User

2011-04-03T09:46:00.000-04:00

It’s been close to 5 years now since I first started experimenting with the Linux operating system. During that time I’ve learned quite a lot – about Linux itself, and about me as a Linux user. Thought I’d reflect on that a bit today. Some random thoughts:

I’ve gone from user to geek and back to user. This transition was necessary at first. When I first began to install Linux, it was on older systems that needed a new O/S. I also wanted to have wireless capability as these older systems were in my basement and I wasn’t anxious to run cables through the floor or the walls. The Linux distros at the time were not particularly wireless savvy, nor were they always friendly to the type of wireless hardware available to me. I had to figure out how to use the command line, make wireless configuration files manually, even build a few modules to get things to work. Then around 2008 everything changed. It would be very rare today to install a Linux distro that didn’t have working wifi. Wireless hardware is also far more compatible than it used to be. So is printing and scanning, especially with HP printers.
My choice of Linux distro is far more limited and certainly not particularly geeky. Basically I stick to a mainstream system that just works (Mandriva), one for netbooks (Ubuntu Netbook Edition) and one for older hardware (Vector Linux.) I have not gotten into the real enthusiast’s type of Linux like Slackware, Arch, or (God forbid) Gentoo. I like Gnome or Xfce for a desktop environment.
I try to use the Linux O/S in a few different ways depending on the hardware I’m working with. More on that in my next post.

The Makings of a Dinosaur

2011-03-14T19:56:00.002-04:00

The other day I was reading in Cnet about the post laptop era - as evidenced by the crowd at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin Texas. The participants at at SXSW roamed the streets with their iPads and smartphones setting up meetings, arranging dinner dates and texting each other ad nauseam with barely a laptop in sight besides a MacBook Air.

After reading this article I realized that I have the makings of a real technical dinosaur. Not only do I not have an iPad or interactive smartphone, I have no intention of ever owning one.

When I worked back in the Pleistocene era, I was happy to have a desktop system and be incommunicado when I wasn’t in the office. A laptop in those days was considered a perk for the managerial types, but I always felt it was a perk not to have to take my work home every night. Times have sure changed and working stiffs are now glued to their Blackberrys and iPhones, not to mention that everybody carries a laptop back and forth to the office. Ball and chain.

But not me. I need a big screen now for my aging eyes. I haven’t even been able to get used to a touchpad, let alone a touch screen. I have a netbook but it’s so slow and frustrating that I switched to a powerful quad core laptop. If I ever buy another computer it’ll be as big a honking desktop system as I can afford. And don’t even get me started on trying to type on a virtual keyboard.

Sorry you interactive bleeding edge people, but I won’t be making the SXSW scene anytime soon. Just call me Laptopadon or Desktoposaurus.

Bunking In With Teddy

2011-03-13T22:09:00.001-04:00

I admit there were times I wasn’t really all that confident we’d enjoy our recent Caribbean cruise as much as we normally do. Part of the problem was that we were going to have two year old grandson Teddy sleeping in our cabin.

As I saw it there were a few problems with this arrangement:

(1) Teddy normally sleeps in his own room without the distraction of others – especially fun distractions like Nonna and Grandpa.

(2) Teddy is used to Mom or Dad being there when he wakes up. We weren’t sure how he’d react when they were not.

(2) Teddy gets up EARLY. 0530 is a common rising hour and - while I used to get up them when I was working at Unilever - it’s been a while since I’ve wanted to.

Anyhow we decided to give it a try but we had a backup plan. There was a second crib placed in his parents’ stateroom in case of emergency.

We began our little experiment in the hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The first night’s sleep ended with a cry of “EEE-YAW! Up!” precisely at 5:30 AM. Can you imagine having an alarm clock that worked like that? Not a pretty thing to contemplate.

As time progressed we went to a new mantra each day: “Daddy? Daddy? Mommy? Mommy? Nonna? Grandpa? Up. Walk.” Things were going pretty well until a time change moved everything back an hour. At 4:30 Nonna found herself walking him around the ship watching the cleaning staff and finally wheeling him down to Plan B – his long suffering Daddy.

Another night after a day of missed naps, we found him up and ready to go at 1:30 AM. Any attempts to snuggle or return him to his crib got “No, no,no,no! Up! Walk! Nonna coming! Grandpa coming!” Time for Daddy to take over again.

Toward the end of the cruise Teddy was settling in nicely although still rising around 5:30 - but the last night he had another 2 AM incident. His Nonna told me later that as she wheeled him around the ship and got him asleep in his stroller she noticed other passengers just coming back to their cabins with drinks still in their hands. Good thing we weren’t among them I guess. Teddy went back to good old Daddy again that night and Dave got him to go back to sleep. Thank heavens.

So at the end of each day we managed all right, and a couple of good nights sleep at home has cured our exhaustion. And the two weeks of quality time we spent with this incredible little boy was worth every minute of lost sleep.

True Celebrities

2011-03-13T16:49:00.001-04:00

Celebrity Cruises has a theme that they’ve used for years – that the guests on their ships are like celebrities in their own right. Slogans like “We treat you famously” or “Starring you” have been coined to get this point across.

I suppose the Celebrity marketeers believe this, but after our 10th Celebrity cruise (and 2nd on Celebrity Equinox) I’m convinced that the true celebrities are the wonderful crew members who serve us aboard the many ships. Those are the folks who keep us coming back to Celebrity.

A case in point would be Leandro, our waiter from our first Equinox cruise. He remembered us - especially our 2 year old grandson Teddy - so he greeted us warmly when we met him again. He was kind enough to let me get a photo of him with Dave and Teddy for our cruise scrapbook.

We met many others on the ship who also remembered Teddy as well – Melani from Mauritius, Albert from Honduras, Leonardo (our all time favorite sommelier) from the Philippines, Antonio from Portugal. During our last Equinox cruise, Antonio had given us a map of Lisbon that was kid friendly so that we could make the most of our day there. We were really happy to see him again.

Maria and I even managed to re-greet a really nice young man (Remzi from Turkey) that we had as an assistant waiter on a Med cruise in 2007.

This time we got to meet a bunch of new celebrities – Leo’s lovely wife Maria who was also aboard Equinox, Anne from France, Ephraim from Turkey, and our fabulous waiter team of Yalcin from Turkey and Alejandro from the Philippines.

We also enjoyed meeting two other nice ladies – Janet from Nicaragua and Samantha from Jamaica - and a tall handsome sommelier named Bojan from Serbia. Bojan loves little kids and came around every day to our table to cuddle our 6 month old granddaughter Veronica. He should make a great dad someday.

I know the cynics among us will assert that these people are paid to be nice and serve us during our cruise vacation. But there’s a huge difference between paid service and genuine unsolicited friendliness. We always get the latter from Celebrity Cruises’ multinational onboard staff. That ensures our loyalty far more than any sort of repeat cruiser program ever could. Here’s to the true Celebrity Celebrities.

September Song

2011-02-22T19:13:00.002-05:00

I got a letter today from Service Canada that told me that my application for Old Age Security has been accepted. It’ll be a while before the money starts rolling in, but I definitely am on my way to the winter period of life.

Just as well I suppose, because when I was in the drugstore today the cashier asked me if I was over 65. It was seniors’ day after all.

Anyhow this got me thinking about one of my favorite old songs – one my Dad used to love. It’s called “September Song.” His favorite version was by Frank Sinatra, but I think mine is by Jimmy Durante. Yes, I know Lou Reed also recorded it but give me some credit for taste.

So here are a few details on “September Song” for your reading pleasure. It was written by Kurt Weill and Max Anderson in 1938 for a Broadway musical featuring Walter Huston – great actor, no singing voice. Apparently the writers dashed it off in a couple of hours and made it as simple to sing as possible.

The show wasn’t that successful but the song became a classic. There are some poignant lyrics that really resonate with me today as I contemplate my OAS notice:

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few

September, November

And these few precious days I’ll spend with you

These precious days I’ll spend with you.

Down to the Sea - In This Ship

2011-02-19T20:11:00.001-05:00

We’re off on another cruise in a week or so. We got started with cruise vacations rather late in life, but now we like them a lot. This will be our 10th one – all with Celebrity Cruises.

Sticking with the same cruise line – assuming you like their style of cruise experience – is a good thing, because eventually you start getting some nice perks. We now get free Internet and laundry service, a lounge with drinks or specialty coffee provided, and priority tendering and departure facilities. We’ve also enjoyed galley and bridge tours.

We’ve had cruises on a wide variety of Celebrity ships – from the smaller more intimate Celebrity Zenith up to the brand new megaship Celebrity Equinox. Right now I have to say we like the big ship best. It’s very comfortable in all sorts of weather, has lots of facilities to keep you happy on sea days and we really like the way they have organized the dining experience.

Last year we went across the Atlantic on the Equinox. This year we’ll be cruising down to Panama and South America. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Watching A Little Boy Grow Up

2011-02-17T15:51:00.001-05:00

Oh sure I loved Mom and Dad when I was a boy growing up in the Leave It To Beaver era. However my favorite adult for a lot of that time had to be my Grandpa.

He was quite an old man when I arrived on the scene. Here’s a pic of us in 1955 when I was 9 and he was 80. However Grandpa lived until age 91 so I have a long and vivid memory of his presence in my life.

He was a man of seemingly inexhaustible patience and good humor – ready to answer any number of questions, and with a treasure trove of stories guaranteed to interest a small boy. He spoke of log cabins and coal oil lamps, steam engines that ran on the railroad or were pulled along the roads by horses and mules, working on the farm or in the city. He would drive me to a convenient spot outside the town where we could watch the trains thunder by, and later get a big basket of fresh strawberries from a local grower. Even when his vision failed, and he had to rely on me to tell what time it was on his favorite pocket watch he never lost his kindness and generous spirit. What a guy,

I mention this now, some 60 years later because nowadays I have my own 2 year old superfan in the making. His name’s Teddy. I am not sure I can channel my own Grandpa – certainly I’ll never be able to compete in storytelling – but I’ll give it my best shot. I’m a bit younger at this stage of life and God willing I’ll be around awhile to provide lots of memories for Teddy as he gets older. At the end of the day I suppose that’s the goal of any Grandpa – sit back and enjoy watching a little boy grow up.

Windows 7 Is A-OK

2011-02-15T13:46:00.001-05:00

I am pretty much a Linux guy when it comes to the PCs around here. Mind you, most of them are older pieces of hardware where Linux runs very well. One machine is fairly new but I didn’t want to be bothered paying for its operating system, or getting involved with licensing hassles. I just installed Linux from the start.

Up until recently I had just one Windows machine in the stable – and that was my Windows XP based Dell Optiplex GX620 desktop from 2005. I still use Windows for a few essential applications, and I expect to continue to do so. Windows XP is getting pretty antiquated, and security support will end in a few years. At that point I would have to abandon Windows completely and go strictly Linux, or move on to some sort of Windows successor O/S.

My experiences with Windows Vista did not inspire a lot of confidence, however. The first Vista machine I saw was one of those “Vista capable” fiascos which had barely enough memory to run the O/S itself, let alone any useful apps. It was slower than an underpowered XP machine it replaced and was only made tolerable by adding another 2 GB of RAM. When I tried configuring wireless routers on other Vista machines I soon became frustrated by all the sidebars, gadgets, popups, UAC interventions and general noise that Vista threw in my face. Not to mention the angst of finding the controls for a simple wireless client configuration. I soon learned to tell any neighbor who asked for help “Sorry I don’t do Vista.”

That’s all changed with the purchase of this Windows 7 equipped Dell Inspiron notebook I’m using right now. Mind you, it’s got plenty of hardware muscle – quad core processor, discrete graphics, scads of RAM, big hard drive. However, Windows 7 is tuning out to be a pleasure to use.

First of all, it is rather minimalist in comparison to Vista. The sidebar is gone, and gadgets are completely optional. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen handles launch icons and minimized Windows buttons with ease.

Second, it is very quiet. Information popups are kept to a minimum and you only see the User Account Control when you are making a major change to the system like installing a program. Security suites like McAfee run unobtrusively and don’t have much effect on performance as far as I can determine.

Third, the Aero interface is very attractive and has some nice features without being too glitzy.

Finally Windows 7 comes with some nice Windows Live! applications like Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer (for blogging.) I am still not that crazy about Internet Explorer or Windows Media player but there are good alternatives available like Firefox, Google Chrome and Songbird that work very well.

To sum up, Windows 7 is A-OK with me. It is a worthy successor (finally) to the aging XP, and far nicer to work with than the bloated and annoying Vista. I’ll have no problems if some day I have to replace my Dell Optiplex XP desktop with a Windows 7 machine. And what would happen to that old desktop? I can see Linux in its future.

No More Lonesome Whistle

2011-02-05T10:29:00.003-05:00

The Brockville and Ottawa Railway has had several names over its long and interesting history - B&O, Canadian Pacific, Ottawa Valley Railway - but no matter what you call it, it's being taken off life support.
This fine old railroad - which traversed Canada's first rail tunnel, carried the Prince of Wales in 1860, and was the scene of one of the worst train wrecks in Canadian history in Almonte - will die today (February 5, 2011.) It hasn't been in use for close to a year and the last opportunity for anyone to buy it as a working entity ends today. CP will tear up the tracks, and probably the counties of Lanark and Renfrew will buy the roadbed for recreational trails and possible re-use if ever needed.
This railway was a major contributor to the industrialization and settlement of many of the Valley towns in the 19th century, but today it's really a road to nowhere. It can't really serve as a commuter railway as most traffic runs perpendicular to it on roads to Ottawa. The last viable Ottawa commuter line near Almonte disappeared over 20 years ago.
CP doesn't need it for slow, heavy, long haul freight transfer either, and there's no local rail traffic between the small de-industrialized towns it formerly served in the Valley. Perhaps some of it would make a nice scenic tourist railway, but I don't know how the Carleton Place suburbanites or the inhabitants of Almonte's poshy downtown condos would like a smoky old Ten Wheeler or light Pacific chugging past their homes in the summer heat. Besides, Ottawa's already got a steam railway for the tourists.
So after 150 years the lonesome whistle will no longer sound in Almonte. There's a nice old railway bridge over the Mississippi that'll be great for pedestrian traffic, and not much else.

End of the Netbook Era

2011-02-04T21:09:00.002-05:00

I've been using a Linux powered Acer Aspire One netbook for a while now - during that time I switched from its native Linpus Lite to Ubuntu Netbook Edition. However I've become increasingly dissatisfied with its performance as a portable PC at home.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not junking it completely. For travel it's a terrific companion - lightweight and robust with its solid state hard drive. It's great for checking email or some light web surfing. It crams into a backpack along with my digital cameras and never complains. It backs up my photos on the road.
However it is not a good machine for portable use around the house. It's underpowered, memory challenged, and very slow for even the simplest Web tasks. The tiny screen is OK in a hotel room, but I longed for a bit more real estate in the living room. The fact it runs Linux mitigates the problem some, but even without the CPU sucking security apps the Aspire One is a laggard. It's sort of like using a laptop from 2001.
So I have been tempted for a while to replace the netbook with something that is a little more functional. I don't want to be tied down to a desktop all the time, but I don't want to stare at a tiny screen and wait... and wait... and wait... either.
There's an additional point to all this - I really want to learn more about Windows 7. Many of my "clients" in the Almonte seniors community are getting over their Vista phobia and replacing their XP hardware with Windows 7 machines. If I'm going to continue to help them with simple troubleshooting I need to have some experience with this latest version of Windows.
The net result was that a couple of weeks ago I decided to buy a new Windows 7 notebook. I decided on a Dell Inspiron M501R. This is a 15.6 inch consumer grade Dell laptop - I decided I didn't need road warrior capability or durability.
I also decided to go with AMD technology. I know Intel has a technical edge in processors, but AMD has good reliable hardware and I believe a slight edge in the graphics arena with their Radeon GPUs. I got a quad core Phenom II CPU and a discrete Radeon 550v graphics unit. AMD calls that combination Vision Ultimate and it should be more than I need for most tasks.
Anyway I customized my machine on the Dell website, my order sped off to Xiamen China where the system was screwed together in Dell's factory there. Then it headed off to Nashville TN for final boxing and shipping to Toronto. From there Purolator brought it to my door in Almonte. All this took 10 days from start to finish.
I've been playing around with my new toy since Monday - typing this post on it now. I've found it to be a powerful, smooth and responsive machine - its graphics are significantly better than either of my aging desktops (2205 and 2008 models.) It's more than capable of running the snazzy Windows 7 Aero interface.
As for Windows 7 - I like it a lot, and I'm a dedicated Linux user. It seems solid and unobtrusive (a far cry from the annoying and bloated Vista O/S I've encountered when trying to fix a few problems at certain neighbors.) It does have User Account Control but it's like a well behaved Linux install - doesn't jump in your face at every keystroke, and doesn't dim the screen while it waits for your confirmation. I wouldn't hesitate to tell any Windows XP devotee to switch over to Windows 7 when they replace their system.
So it's the end of the netbook era at home. But the little Aspire One will be in my backpack and off on another journey one of these days.

The Changing Face of TV Technology

2009-11-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking the other day that in the nearly 38 years we have been married, Maria and I have had only 4 primary TV sets. Those 4 sets certainly highlight the changing face of television technology.
Set #1 from the early 1970s was a 20 inch Zenith Chromacolor (The Quality Goes In Before The Name Goes On.) It probably still featured handwiring and some tubes in the chassis. The set was hand delivered and set up by the local Zenith dealer. It featured a rotary dial tuner that could get 12 or so VHF channels and was connected by coax cable to an "over the air" antenna.
Set #2 from 1982 was a handsome 26 inch RCA (In Living Color) Colortrak wooden console TV. This time it took two guys from the Local RCA dealer to deliver it and one stayed behind to set it up. It had a remote control and was connected by coax to analog Cable TV that featured at that time about 30 channels.
Set #3 from 1999 (still running VCR and DVD in our rec room) is a 32 inch RCA Home Theater Premiere. This big heavy monster was again delivered by two guys and not much setup was needed. Eventually this set was connected by coax to a digital cable box and tuned into hundreds of standard definition channels. This was one of the Thomson Electronics RCA models and performed pretty well (still does.)
Set #4 from 2009 is a 37 inch Samsung series 5 LCD HDTV. It's not a feature laden set but it does have pretty nice TV performance. Nobody did anything to deliver or set it up. I carried it home in the back of my Jeep and set it up myself, connecting it by HDMI cable to an HDTV cable box. In addition to the other standard definition, it gets an additional 35-40 high definition channels.
From vacuum tubes to solid state, CRT to LCD, standard def to high def, antenna to cable, analog to digital, 12 channels to hundreds - it's been a long and interesting ride. Zenith and RCA are Asian brands today - part of television history. And so am I, probably.

I'm Hooked.

2009-02-12T17:51:00.002-05:00

It's no secret in my family that I'm not a big fan of little kids. I have been quoted in the past as saying: "Just introduce me to him when he's out of diapers and understands logic."
But I must admit that 3 week old Edward Vincent McLean has me wrapped around his tiny perfect fingers already.
We had planned for Maria to go down to Ottawa and help Sarah out the first week that Dave returned to work. However her sister was not well in Kingston so she had to go down there for a few days instead.
Grandpa had to pinch hit until Grandma could get back there on Wednesday. Not entirely confident in my attempts to do so, I advised Sarah upfront. "This is not what you'll get with your mother...but I'll try."
I soon discovered that I still had the old baby magic though. I can get the most unburpable child to burp - just ask my favorite green Greg Norman sweater. Also I can walk and rock him to sleep just as effectively as I did with his mother back in November 1977.
The sights, sounds and smells of a three week old are irresistible too. Well some smells are at least. For more scatological needs I can still hand him back to Mom and Dad and never run the risk of getting shat upon - which Sarah did to me more than once (she was paid back for her crimes today.)
Grandma's coming home tonight as she has to go to the optometrist and do her volunteer work tomorrow. So I'm going back to Teddyville. It's my turn. I'm hooked.

Lower,Slower,Weaker

2009-02-12T16:10:00.001-05:00

It seems that the decades old WinTel model of computer technology has been turned on its ear in the last year or so.
The concept of designing and building faster and more powerful processing capability, followed by a more complex and resource hungry software stack has been replaced by a sort of inverse Olympic model - lower (power consumption), slower (processor speeds) weaker (performance scores). The new standard seems to be "good enough" rather than "bleeding edge" in the majority of cases.
This is the thought that went into the Intel Atom processor and its associated chipset. The combination of a mini-processor and capable but undistinguished supporting hardware is driving the latest "netbook"' sales boom.
Let's face it - the fact is that the majority of stuff most people use a computer for has not demanded increasingly powerful processing. Once you get to the point where you can surf the Internet, play music and videos without glitches, and do your normal office tasks, things are "good enough." That point probably occurred around 2002 with the advent of the Pentium 4 processor and Windows XP. Everything that happened since then has been important to gamers, graphics designers, video editors - but not the general computer user.
Couple with that the fact that the hardware designers were running into serious limitations with processor speed, power consumption and just keeping the darn thing cool and it was obvious that something had to be done. The multicore processor has been the the solution for the power users; the simpler "old is new again" Atom technology has spurred on the development of a new generation of cool tiny Internet appliances. It's as if Intel has been given the chance to go back and re-invent the Pentium processor knowing what they know now about miniaturization and nanotechnology.
The software makers have had to adjust to the new landscape too. Microsoft has the hardest challenge I think. The bloated Vista operating system is just not going to perform well in the netbook environment, and as a result Microsoft is stuck offering and extending support on an eight year old O/S until they get their Windows 7 out of the shop. The initial reviews are pretty good, but they are probably 6-9 months away from a saleable new product.
Well then, how about Linux? No problem. The combination of efficient design, low resource demand, no need for CPU sucking security apps makes it perfect for the netbook. I'm typing this post now on an 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One running Linux with only 512 MB of RAM. It's a pleasure - fast boot from its solid state hard drive, all the software I need, excellent wireless support. It doesn't look like Windows XP but it works.
I'm using Abiword - a smooth, full featured bloat free word processor. (Yes you can get it free for Windows if you want.)
The only problem Linux on the netbook has is - how do you get the average user to try it?

Netbook Networking

2009-02-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

My daughter has decided that it'll be difficult to sit at a desktop computer and multitask with all the stuff she'll need to do to keep Teddy fed, changed and happy. However, she doesn't want to completely lose contact with the online world either.
The solution is some sort of wireless laptop - specifically a netbook. These lightweight Internet appliances are perfect for travel activity - either moving around the house, researching restaurants in a hotel room on a motor trip, or even emailing on a cruise ship.
Sarah's a demon touch typist, and I was concerned that the typical 7 or 9 inch netbook keyboard would be frustrating for her. We found the solution I think. It's a Dell Inspiron Mini 12 - larger 12 inch screen and an almost full size keyboard. It weighs a bit more than a kilo and is as thin as a Macbook Air. She ordered it from Dell and it should arrive next week.
These netbooks have state of the art wireless hardware but otherwise are solid 2003 technology. The Mini 12 has an Intel Atom Z530 processor and a Poulsbro chipset - low power, slow 1.6 GHz single core processor, maxed out memory at 1 GB. The original models ran Vista Home Basic and it was painful to watch. The second generation Mini 12s offer a step back to Windows XP or a step forward to Ubuntu Linux.
If you choose XP it costs more to buy the netbook, and you can only get Microsoft Works installed on your machine. You have to buy and install Microsoft Office or download and install Open Office. Of course Ubuntu comes with all the software you need right out of the box. Ubuntu is also a great choice for a netbook because it'll boot faster and use less resources - no need for CPU sucking security applications. The final advantage is that Sarah will have the opportunity to learn and use Linux - one never knows if and when such a skill will come in handy at the office.
Of course Grandpa the geek is all ready to provide whatever IT assistance is needed.

On Being a Grandpa

2009-02-06T12:42:00.001-05:00

Well, my grandson Teddy is 2 1/2 weeks old now so maybe some grandfatherly comments are in order:

(1) I am really proud of my daughter and son-in-law. Sarah coped with hours of labor and natural childbirth with great courage, and has been up to the challenges of two difficult weeks as Teddy adjusts to life in the real world. Dave will be a natural dad - he's jumped right into all the tasks of parenthood with enthusiasm, support and good humor.

(2) Maria has been a great help to them - in the right way. She cooked and cleaned house for a week so that the new parents could bond with the baby and concentrate on his needs.

(3) Teddy appears to be an even tempered little guy that is dealing well with the ups and downs of early childhood. He cries when he needs you, but otherwise he's pretty laid back and calm.

(4) I haven't forgotten how to hold and burp a baby although it's been awhile.

(5) It's amazing how fast kids grow and develop. You see a change even in a couple of days at this age. I'm looking forward to the first smile in a couple of months though.

(6) I really don't feel any older being a grandpa. It's a stage of life that feels right to me now, just as being a dad felt right when Sarah was born.

Transatlantic At Last

2008-12-29T09:30:00.002-05:00

One thing I've always wanted to do is take a sea voyage across the Atlantic. This dream is set to come true this April as I've finally convinced Maria she can do this with me - with lots of bonamine packed in her suitcase.
We'll be flying from Ottawa to Miami and then it's a two week cruise with the first 7 days at sea . We'll go to the Canary Islands, Spain, France, Great Britain and end in Amsterdam. After a few days in Holland we'll fly back.
Actually a cruise like this is a bargain because they have to take the ship over there anyway, and not everyone chooses a transatlantic cruise as their first experience of ship travel.
The ship is Celebrity Century - large enough to be comfortable, small enough to enjoy great service.
One more lifetime ambition to check off my list.

Outliers

2008-12-29T09:12:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Sarah (who lent me her copy) I was able to read pop sociologist Malcom Gladwell's latest book on what it takes to be uber-successful.
Gladwell is one of the most entertaining writers of non-fiction I've ever read. Although I think he does better as a micro-sociologist (examining individual stories) than he does in the macro realm (trying to explain large scale happenings), his book is a thoroughly great read - in the same class as The Tipping Point and Blink.
At least I know now why I wasn't that much of a worldly success - born in the wrong timeframe, and lacked the opportunity to grind it out for 10,000 hours in my choice of craft. However as a husband , dad, and hopefully granddad I'm doing OK.

Daylight Saving Time (from 2002)

2008-12-29T09:09:00.000-05:00

Daylight Saving Time arrived today, and once again this year, a month too early.
I get up at 6 AM each day, and I had barely gotten used to a bright hour of rising. Today I was plunged into the gloom of February redux. Not that the extra hour of daylight did me much good. Today featured leaden skies and cool temperatures - not exactly outdoor weather.
In the halcyon days before 1986, DST came late in April, with the promise of some glorious May evenings. Now it's still wet and cold in my part of the world, and I'd prefer a bit more daylight to start the day. Alas, nobody asked me.

Golden Age (from Early 2007)

2008-12-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

I believe we are in a golden age of dumpster diving and recycling when it comes to personal computers.
Many laptops and desktops built from 1998-2001 have now become technically obsolete as far as Microsoft Windows is concerned. These Pentium III - and even Pentium II - machines are running Windows 98 or Windows Millennium and are no longer supported by Microsoft for security. They may be able to run XP but never Vista- never in a million years.
Most of these systems have plenty of horsepower to do basic email, Web and Office tasks, play music, catalog digital photos - if they can be given a new lease on life with a stable, secure and supported operating system.
That is where Linux comes in. There is a distribution of Linux for the lamest system around - although anything older than a Pentium II processor will be a S-L-O-W performer if you want a graphical user interface.
Here are some examples of PCs I have resurrected with Linux:
(1) Dell Dimension 4100 desktop from 2000. This machine belonged to my daughter when she was in graduate school. It was gathering dust until I upgraded its memory to 512 Mb, added a new hard drive, and installed Ubuntu 7.04 (the distribution Dell is now offering with new PCs in the USA.) It has a wireless card and runs as a second PC in my basement now.
(2) Compaq Armada 1700 laptop from 1998. This antique Pentium II 266 was running Windows 95 (badly) when I discovered it in a recycling facility near Almonte. It had a new hard drive and the leather carrying case alone was worth the $50 I paid for it. I added some more memory up to a whopping 160Mb, and got a used wireless PCMCIA card for it. Now I have a wireless laptop that works great with Vector Linux 5.8. Vector is especially good with very old hardware.
(3) Compaq Presario from 1999. My neighbor bought a new Vista PC and was going to throw this one away. I installed Ubuntu Linux, put in a wireless USB setup and her son now has a PC in her basement to check email and surf the Web.
(4) Dell Optiplex desktop from 2001. This one was too slow, and could not work on the network of a coffee company in Almonte. I put Ubuntu on it and gave it to one of the employees there.
(5) Whitebox midtower from 1999 - this one has a 1st generation Pentium III 500 and 256 Mb of RAM. It couldn't even boot Windows 98 properly, and was about to be junked because its owners now have a new Gateway. I installed PCLinuxOS on it and gave it to a friend who didn't have a computer. It's doing fine in a new home, with a new lease on life.

Philip Gibbs (from April 2002)

2008-12-29T09:05:00.000-05:00

I read some gripping prose lately, in spite of the fact that it was written 80 years ago and its author has been dead for 40. The book is called "More That Must Be Told", by the British war correspondent Philip Gibbs (1877-1962). It is an analysis of the developed countries after World War I, and in its pages one can clearly see the seeds of the second global conflict. Gibbs soberly wrote of the great German war debt, the poverty of Austria, the vengeful mentality of France, the apathy in Britain, and the developing isolationism of America. He saw so clearly that the United States was the key to world peace, and hoped against hope for her participation in global affairs. Alas, his hope in 1921 had to wait 25 years to see fruition, until after another great war.
It is chilling to read current events 80 years later, when you already know how things turned out. I wonder what a reader in 2082 will make of our current events. It seems there is not much new under the sun.

Birdsongs (from April 2002)

2008-12-29T09:04:00.001-05:00

A vernal highlight for me is the return of the birds to the big trees in our neighborhood. This morning as I stepped outside the front door, I heard a feathery chorus: "Cheery-Up! Cheery-Up!" from a Robin, "Cooah" from a Mourning Dove, "Dee! Dee! Dee!" from a Chickadee, the fast cheery warble of a Purple Finch, and the slow cadenced whistle of a Cardinal.
I immediately thought of our recent walk through the Royal Park in Brussels, where we saw and heard real Cuckoos, and a Blackbird that can sing rather than squawk as our North American Grackles do. Doubtless Charlotte Bronte enjoyed the same sights and sounds 160 years ago.
Of all God's gifts to humanity, the song of one of these light-as-air creatures must rank among the best.

Cross of Sacrifice (from April 2002)

2008-12-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

Four weeks ago today, my family and I visited the town of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium.
We stared in admiration at the magnificently restored Cloth Hall and St. Martin's Cathedral. These medieval masterpieces were smoking ruins after the scourge of German artillery in 1915.
Later we visited the Menin Gate. It was a deeply emotional moment as we looked at thousands of Canadian names - names of men who had no known grave, no other memorial.
We walked along the ramparts of Ieper to the Ramparts Cemetery. There my daughter (age 24) discovered that every one of the 192 Commonwealth soldiers buried there had been younger than she is when they died.
Three hundred thousand men of the British Commonwealth died at Ieper. One hundred thousand of them were never identified. So much blood spilled. So little wisdom gained. When will they ever learn, When will they ever learn?

Two Great Cats (from 2002)

2008-12-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

I'm a cat person. It has my great fortune to be owned by two wonderful yet totally different animals.
The first was Brio (1982-1999) , a classic Sealpoint Siamese. Brio was the smartest , noisiest, most intelligent four-footed bundle of love I will ever know. To this day , as I lie on the couch watching TV, I still expect to see this great old cat climb onto the sofa, and stretch out full length on my legs to sleep. The day we had to send Brio to the Bright Cattery in the Sky was one of the saddest days of my life.
A few days later, when I returned to the Vet to pay Brio's final bill, I spotted Sammy in a cage in the reception room. He was an energetic 6 month old stray kitten whom some kind soul had brought to the Vet. Sammy is likely a Russian Blue, with the soft gray silver tipped coat. He's a lot quieter breed of cat, but he has a wonderful deep full-throated purr that makes his whole body shake. He's become a regal looking adult male, but deep down he's just a cuddly old lap cat.
Did I mention I'm a cat person?

Moved to Blogspot

2008-12-29T08:55:00.000-05:00

Because I've had some issues with publishing posts on my own ISP's hosting service, I've had to move this blog to Blogspot as the host.
The new web address will be http://almontage.blogspot.com

I deleted the old blog on my ISP so the former link is now dead. Sorry about that, but I think I was running out of space over there.
A few of my earliest posts have also disappeared but they remain on my Facebook notes so I may republish them when I get a chance.

Waiting Game

2008-12-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

The crib has been assembled, the baby clothes are in the bureau, the books are in the bookshelf and the nursery room is ready.
My daughter has a couple more days of work and then she's off on her maternity leave.
Now it's the waiting game, and I'm sure she's anxious to get the show on the road.
I know her mother and I were feeling that way the last few days of September in 1977. As I took Maria to the hospital on Oct 2, I remember thinking - well this is going to be a special day for all of us - and it was.
Let's just hope Teddy doesn't make us wait too much longer.

Hope for My Grandson

2008-10-31T12:05:00.000-04:00

For better or worse, I am rapidly approaching the 62nd anniversary of my appearance on Planet Earth. My father is dead, and my mother's mind is fading so I can't say for sure what my parents were hoping for me in November 1946. However I suspect it wasn't much different than any other young parents of the day.
The world had just come through a Great Depression and the Second Great War of the 20th Century. Things had been pretty bad, and my parents had to be hoping for a better life ahead.
I'm sure my wife's parents had the same hope for her three years later, and they hoped big-time when they immigrated to Canada from Italy in 1956. Things had to be better for the kids.
And they were. Maria and I came from humble beginnings but we always had enough to eat and wear growing up, plus we had the opportunity to get a good education. As a result we had long and satisfying careers, saved our money and are enjoying a comfortable retirement so far. We've had our ups and downs but nobody would deny we had a better chance in life than our parents did.
When Sarah was born in 1977 the world was still under the spectre of Nuclear War, there was stagflation in the economy, uncertainty about the future of Canada. Yet as young parents we had hopes for her, hopes she would have a better life than we did. Certainly we were able to give her more opportunities for learning and travel, and provide her with a few more luxuries than we had as children. She did us proud - went further in school than we did, has excelled in her choice of career, married a fine young man, and now is expecting our grandson.
And what of their hopes for him? The world is now facing the threat of terror, the possibility of another Depression, the depletion of resources, Climate Change...the list goes on and seems to deny the possibility of a better life than his parents and grandparents have had. Yet babies continue to be born, young parents continue to hope.
Perhaps a better life is in the cards for our young grandson to be. He should have all the opportunities for learning and development as an individual as his grandparents and parents have enjoyed. Beyond that is a lot of hope and prayer - prayer that he'll grow up to be a kind, loving and life affirming person and leave the world a better place for his being in it.

Closing Windows - Not Yet

2008-01-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

Although I'm still a long way from being a Linux guru, I have progressed steadily in knowledge to the point where I feel comfortable using it as my primary computer operating system. In fact my newest desktop is Linux only.
My experiences with Microsoft Vista on my neighbor's new Compaq desktop have led me to conclude I don't want to have Vista on any machine of mine - ever. For a while I was thinking that maybe I'd dump Windows completely and go over to Linux cold turkey as it were. But I decided it isn't time to do that - yet.
I don't use Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. Firefox and Thunderbird Mail work great and they are basically the same in Linux or Windows XP. So the online experience is the same with both systems.
Windows XP runs fine on the older hardware I have it installed on (upgraded Dell Dimension 4100 from 2001.) XP will be supported with another Service Pack and with security updates until 2014. I don't care about eye candy and desktop glitz. In fact I have XP looking like Windows 2000 right now. There's no rush to get rid of it.
There are a few things that I still prefer to do with XP, frankly:
(1) Income tax. Quick Tax is Windows only. I could use Quicken's online service or Ufile I suppose, but I prefer having the software on my local machine.
(2) ACDSee photo management software. It's still the best, and I'd have to see if it works under WINE emulation in Linux. Not sure, but it's fine in Windows XP.
(3) Slide scanning. My old Minolta Scan Dual II can be made to work in Linux but it's designed for XP. Its software will never, ever run in Vista though.
(4) Roboform. The best password manager in the world. I'd really miss it if I went to Linux only.
In conclusion, I'd say that God willing I'm going to explore every opportunity to do things the Linux way over the next six-odd years. When XP finally is no longer supported, or I can't keep it running on my old Dell, then it'll be Linux time. Any new machine will never run a Microsoft O/S. Trust me.

Vista Free Computing

2008-01-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of totally new computing experiences earlier this month.
I bought my first clone computer after 25 years - everything else I've ever had has been branded (for better or worse.) Also I got my new desktop with no operating system at all.
After a never ending sequence of Linux junkers I wanted to see what my favorite O/S would do with a modern system.
So I headed down to Everbest Computer in Nepean and they built me a new box - AMD X2 4600+, 2 GB RAM, DVD-ROM, Western Digital 320 GB Hard Drive, ATI X1250 Integrated Graphics. What's even better was they didn't insist on any Microsoft Tax - no Vista or XP installed as part of the package. Without that bloatware I saved about $400, brought it home and installed Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon myself.
Now I have a great new system that just flies...I knew Linux was good on middle aged hardware but I never expected it to be as great as it is on relatively state of the art machinery. So I am now officially Vista Free for the foreseeable future.

Adios Old Friend

2008-01-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

We said good-bye to an old friend a couple of weeks ago.
Our 1995 Dodge Neon gave up the ghost after 13 years, 150,000 km and countless trips in and around Georgetown and lately Ottawa.
We had noticed a smell of gasoline in the garage and then when I took the Neon out for a drive there was a trail of gas on the road behind me. This is not a good thing.
Having been warned about a rusty gas tank last summer, I expected something dire. The Arnprior Chrysler service dept. informed me that in addition to the leaking gas, I had rotting brake lines, and bad front end steering components. The total bill to fix it was about 5 times what the Neon was worth. We could not justify it at the age of the car.
So one of the most fun-filled and at the same time exasperating cars I've ever owned had its plates removed and went to the wrecker.
In its heyday it went like a rocket, cornered like a snake on sandpaper. At the same time it was noisy, had a poorly designed 3 speed transmission, rode like a lumber wagon and had the worst wind noise I've ever seen - thanks for those frameless windows, Chrysler!
I fixed the A/C twice, had the inevitable head gasket repair, tire replacement and various computer glitches an old car will give you. But I loved the old beast.
The Neon's spot in our garage is now occupied by a Jeep Compass - very smooth, great view of the road, sophisticated continuous variable transmission - a delight to drive. But I still get a lump in my throat when I go out there and get in.

4 Classes of Linux Hardware

2007-10-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

Sure, you can install Linux on a brand new PC, but my experience with it has been as a means to resurrect or at least resuscitate older hardware. I've found that when it comes to fixing up older machines there appear to be 4 basic classes of Linux candidates, namely:
(1) Gently Used
These machines tend to have a fast Pentium III, Celeron or AMD processor, lots of RAM, and a fairly decent hard drive and video card. It probably runs (or ran) Windows Me originally.
The likelihood of getting one of these at a garage sale or recycling depot is low. People still think they have value (they don't) so they are currently still in use or gathering dust in a closet for a few more years. The only ones I've encountered are my own rebuilt machine or one my neighbor was about to retire that I fixed for her.
These machines run just about any desktop version of Linux you want and play MP3s, have good graphics, and so on.
Verdict: A pleasure. I wish more of these were out there.
(2) Used
Here you'll get slow Pentium III or Celeron, not much RAM, barely usable hard drive and video. These machines usually ran Windows 98 and are slightly older. They are starting to show up in recycling stores or second-hand outlets. They were cheap when originally purchased (although the clones are better than name brands like Compaq.) To be useful they need added RAM - which is pretty cheap - and maybe a larger hard drive. It's not worth adding more than 256 MB of RAM though.
They'll run the more resource hungry desktops like Gnome and KDE plus browsers like Firefox, albeit at a more leisurely pace. They'll do better with a lighter Linux desktop like Xubuntu or Vector Linux.
Verdict: Generally OK but add some memory.
(3) Junk
These feature Pentium II or K-6-2 processors, poor video, and low RAM and hard drive. They usually ran Windows 95 although some have Windows 98 on them now. These are easy to get and harder to fix up.
I have a Compaq Armada laptop that falls into this category. I picked it up cheap at a recycling outlet.
It has a nice 20GB hard drive and a pretty LCD display, but needed 128 MB of RAM to maximize its memory capacity before it was worth installing anything. Even with maximum memory it cried out for a lighter Linux desktop so I installed Vector Linux, and now run it with Fluxbox ( a very light window manager). It now has a wireless card I got for $30 or so.
Verdict: Surprisingly OK if you know what to do.
(4) Real Junk
Here you'll have a Pentium 133 or less, low RAM that is expensive to upgrade and has a maximum that is 80 MB or so, crappy video and miniscule hard drive. Often these pigs don't even have a CD-ROM. These always run (or ran) Windows 95. You often get these at a second hand shop, but people should really pay to get them recycled rather than donate them to anyone.
I have a Fujitsu 735Dx laptop like this. It took a lot of research to find a version of Linux that could be installed on it without a CD-ROM, was very, very lightweight and yet useful. The only one I found that I like is called Deli Linux.
A machine in this class struggles to do anything these days. It won't play MP3s very well (if at all,) it barely has enough memory to run a modern browser like Firefox 1.5 (and version 1.5 isn't all that modern, believe me.) The other Deli Linux browsers that are lighter than Firefox - Dillo or Konq-E - don't display web pages very well.
Verdict: Interesting curiosity. Useful to learn about Linux but should not be given away to a normal computer user. Geeks only.

Lego Set

2007-10-01T15:31:00.000-04:00

The more I work with Linux, the more I am impressed with how different it is in its approach to the user than Microsoft Windows.
Take for example the user interface. The Windows XP or Vista desktop is essentially a unified seamless block of steel, whereas a Linux desktop is more like a Lego set.
Windows provides a standard look and feel with its icons, backgrounds, window appearance etc. This is great if you have the hardware to run Windows well but what if you don't? It'll be slow or crippled or won't run at all.
Linux is far more flexible. A typical graphical user interface for Linux is made up of three interdependent components:
(1) X Window System - this basic means of displaying graphics in a window (it's called "X" generally) has been around in one shape or another since 1984. X is the standard way a Unix-based operating system displays stuff. However on its own it can't do much. It requires a manager.
(2) The Window Manager. The window manager tells X how and where to display its windows. There are a variety of these around and the combination of X and some sort of window manager is pretty much all you need to get things running graphically in Linux. One of the best lightweight window managers is called Fluxbox and I use it on my old Compaq laptop. Fluxbox is Zen like in its simplicity - no icons, no easy graphical way to set up a background. A right-click brings up a basic list of applications like your web browser, but that is it. To make the system more user-friendly, the window manager needs:
(3) The Desktop Environment. Add this in and you are really getting close to a Windows type of operating system. The desktop environment adds a file manager, icons, toolbars - pretty much all the eye candy. It comes at a price though. All the extra graphics requires more powerful hardware to run at a reasonable speed.
The two most sophisticated Linux desktop environments are called Gnome and KDE. Both of these look and feel great if you are running a powerful enough computer system. They are sort of like Windows XP in their system requirements. However both of them are bog slow on an old PC like my Compaq Armada from 1998. There is a third desktop environment called Xfce which is lighter and faster, but it's not optimal for really old slow machines.
I found that the best solution for the Compaq was to forget about a sophisticated desktop environment entirely and just install the window manager Fluxbox. Then I added in a file manager called Rox-filer. Rox allows you to set a wallpaper background and add a few icons on your desktop if you want. This Flux-Rox combination is perfect for an old slow computer and still looks good.
It takes a bit more time to roll your own desktop but this is the beauty of Linux. At the end you get a fast and responsive system that satisfies your needs and in the process you learn more about his interesting alternative to Windows.

Treadmill Music

2007-09-14T13:57:00.000-04:00

For the past 15 years or so - in fits and starts - whatever exercise I've gotten aside from walking outdoors has come on a treadmill.
I'm on my second one now. My original analog-controlled Vitamaster ran (after a fashion) for 13 years and I left it behind in the basement in Georgetown when we moved to the Valley. Now I have a Horizon Fitness T62 - much smoother and more powerful with automatic incline adjustment and digital everything.
Aside from the machine itself, there is one indispensable accessory to keep me motivated and active - music to accompany the walk. The way I've played music has also changed dramatically since 1992 - and I daresay for the better. Here's a list of what I've used:
Stage 1 - FM radio on a "ghetto blaster".
This was my very first attempt and it was OK I suppose for a beginner. The advantage was quick and easy setup - just turn the radio on and dial up a classic rock station like Y95. Disadvantages were annoying though. I usually started my exercise section when the station had 10 minutes of commercials in between long sets of music. Then I'd usually get Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or something else that wasn't really up-tempo walk rock. Time to move on.
Stage 2 - Cassette tapes.
This was certainly better as I got to pick the music - no commercials either. Disadvantages were that I had to tape the music myself, make sure I started the tape at the beginning so I'd have 45 minutes of continuous rock to exercise to. Also the dam' tapes kept getting stretched by the awkward mechanism in the blaster, or small sections were erased without warning. I was soon looking for a better solution.
Stage 3 - CDs on a better ghetto blaster.
This was my preferred music source for many years. The advantages were that the music stayed clear and clean. I had a CD burner by then so I made my own CDs from my collection just as I had with tapes. No particular disadvantage other than I had a lot of CDs kicking around the basement.
Stage 4 - portable MP3 player.
I adopted this method when MP3 players shrank to the size of a cigarette lighter and I could stick one in my gym shorts. The advantage was size and portability. No big ghetto blaster any longer. However I hated ear buds and even with a good set of mini earphones the dangling cord kept getting in my way. Also I had a limited selection of songs - my player was only 128 MB. Add to that the fact that the battery would often die in the middle of a walk, and I needed another way. Fortunately I didn't have to go back to CDs.
Stage 5 - MP3s on a Linux computer.
Sarah's old Dell Dimension 4100 was perfect for this. I set it up in the basement near the treadmill, installed Ubuntu with Rhythmbox and 700 MP3s on it. Now it blasts away while I walk and never dies, seldom repeats and never gets in the way. The only disadvantage is maybe I now have too much choice - but hey, I can live with it. I think I've found my long term answer for walk rock.

Silent Cal

2007-08-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

While Dave was camping in Algonquin Park, Sarah Maria and I spent the Civic Holiday weekend in Rutland Vermont.
After a day of outlet shopping we decided to immerse ourselves in a little Vermont history, so we went out to see the Calvin Coolidge Historical Site in Plymouth Notch.
I came away with a renewed appreciation of the beauty of rural Vermont, and of Mr. Coolidge himself.
History has not been kind to Calvin Coolidge. He has been portrayed as a taciturn, dour, pickle-faced politician who as President did even less than he spoke. In fact, he was a hard working, sincere, principled man who was rooted in the traditions of rural America from whence he came. He gave more speeches than any of his predecessors - wrote them himself, thank you very much. He would have had no difficulty spelling "nuclear" or "potato." He cut taxes, lowered the National Debt, and during his presidency the economy boomed.
If Calvin Coolidge can be faulted it's likely because he was old school - a horse and buggy Victorian in the age of transoceanic flight, jazz and radio broadcasts. No place could have been dearer to his heart than the tiny village of Plymouth Notch. He'd recognize it in a heartbeat.
The Notch is almost Zen-like in its beauty and simplicity. Modern fast food outlets and gas stations passed it by - it was never restored, just preserved in a time warp.
The Coolidge homestead is a rambling hodgepodge of living space, woodshed and horse barn all linked together. In its tiny sitting room Mr. Coolidge took the Presidential oath in 1923 - his notary public father administered it to him by kerosene lamp at 3AM.
Across the street is an 1840 Congregational Church, and next to the homestead is an 1890 era Vermont cheese factory. The rest of the village includes a general store, a restaurant, and some more barns and "efficiency cottages" for 1920s tourists.
In the tiny cemetery nearby Calvin Coolidge lies with his wife and sons. Cal Jr. died in 1924 while his father was president; John Coolidge lived into his 90s and survived Calvin by 67 years. The only way you could tell that Mr. Coolidge was president is by the Presidential Seal on his gravestone. That's the way he would have wanted it, I'm sure.

Bridging the Digital Divide

2007-07-24T08:05:00.000-04:00

OK, OK I give up - it's time to store away the film camera and switch to digital for vacations! I'm just too old and weak to be hauling a 35mm SLR and 4 lenses all over Europe any longer.
However, I didn't want to go to the expense of buying a digital SLR and a whole new set of lenses just so I could take a wide angle photo or two.
I found what I think is an appropriate compromise in the Fujifilm S6000fd bridge camera. It's cheaper than an SLR and while it lacks some of the SLR features it should do the job.
I got one earlier in July. I have been playing with it a bit, mostly taking pictures of Ottawa scenery while we've been down there cat-sitting for Sarah and Dave.
What I like about the camera so far:
(1) Nice crisp photos - a bit cooler than the Nikon CP5000 but very good clarity.
(2) Big solid well balanced camera, easy to hold like an SLR but lighter.
(3) Wide angle to telephoto lens gives 28-300 mm coverage in 35 mm film terms.
(4) Easy to use and setting is mostly through buttons, no need to go deep into menus.
(5) 6 MP sensor is fine for my use without huge file sizes and excessive noise at higher ISO.
(6) Uses normal AA and AA rechargeable batteries.

What I'm not so crazy about:
(1) It uses xD memory which is harder to find and a bit more expensive. Huge 2 Gb capacity is available though.
(2) The electronic viewfinder is dimmer and harder to see than a real optical display, although you do see the whole lens view unlike the Nikon CP 5000 I used until recently.
(3) No way to attach external flash, and the on-camera flash kept popping up when I didn't want it. I quickly learned how to switch it off.
(4) Can't go as wide as before, but I think it'll be OK. I shot at 28mm before I had a 24mm specialty lens and photos were fine.

The S600fd has face detection technology which is a neat feature for snapshots, and although it does not have vibration reduction/image stabilization built in I'm not too worried. I mostly take pictures of buildings and parks in good light and I can put up with high ISO once in a while for an indoor shot without flash.
After 25 years of using an SLR I never thought I'd shoot seriously with any other sort of camera. But never say never I guess.

10 Great Things About Turning 60

2007-07-18T19:09:00.000-04:00

Actually I already turned 60 in November of last year but it takes a while to start appreciating why. Here's my top 10 list so far:

#10 - I'm Retired
After a couple of years of volunteer work in Almonte I am now permanently retired and it is great. No more worrying about blue Monday morning, commuting in bad weather, kissing corporate butt.
We have decent cashflow and no financial problems so why not kick back and enjoy the leisure. I don't know why anyone would want to work after 65. I was through with it at 58 and glad to be.
#9 - Steam Locomotives
I love watching them work on tourist rail lines, and I enjoy seeing them when visiting railroad museums, but I'm old enough to remember when they were actually in use on the CNR and CPR.
#8 - Great War Veterans
Now that we're down to our last one I take pride in the fact that I grew up knowing some of these grand old soldiers personally. While I'm sure it's a great thrill for the kids of today to read about Vimy, I learned firsthand what it was like from a guy who walked up the Ridge that day. RIP George.
#7 - Rock and Roll
I can remember 50 years of the stuff from Elvis to AM rock radio to Woodstock and Psychedelia to Metal and New Wave, Synthpop, Grunge, and Garage Rock. My son in law just discovered how great Randy Newman and Steve Miller are. I knew that 30 years ago.
#6 - Technical Savvy
Unlike many of the folks who are 10-15 years older than I am, I worked with computers all my career and adapted with them. I can fix a PC, blog on the Internet, do online banking without panic. It's a skill I hope I can maintain.
#5 - Senior Discounts
I get my banking fees mostly for free and I'm now getting discounts on cruises, restaurant meals and lots of other goods and services. All right!
#4 - Pocket Watches
Got my first real one from Grandpa in 1953 and since then I've collected a few others. They are works of art and keep time better than modern mechanicals - almost as good as quartz if they are properly maintained. I can remember when people used them too.
#3 - Grown Up Kids
It's great to have an adult daughter and son-in-law. We can travel with them, help them when asked, give advice if needed - just enjoy their company.
#2 - Decent Health
At this point we're still good to go on vacations, walk anywhere, do just about anything we want. It's a good age to be.
And the #1 reason:
- I'm a leading edge Boomer.
All the advantages I had of being ahead of the demographic crowd apply now. The decisions we make today are mostly followed by the mob 5-10 years fom now.
There's no crowd of retirees competing with us yet for pensions, health care, spots on cruise ships or vacations in February. They are still raising kids and working their butts off. By the time they are ready to jam up the retirement/leisure market I'll be home and cooled out by the fire (hopefully).

The Toughest Game

2007-07-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

I caught a few innings of Major League Baseball's All Star Game last night. Aside from bringing back memories of The 1991 All Star Game in Toronto (a live event Sarah and I attended) this year's game reinforced my belief that baseball is the toughest team sport to play well at the highest level.
It's not as physical as football or hockey, doesn't need the conditioning of soccer, true. But it's got to be the toughest when it comes to hand eye co-ordination, timing and the mental element.
Both teams had an awesome contingent of offensive players, and a number of home runs were blasted out of AT&T Park. One even stayed in the park - Ichiro's inside-the-parker was the first in over 70 years of All Star games. However, the pitching - oh that pitching- is the reason baseball is so tough.
As a batter in an all star game, you start out hitting against the top pitcher in the other league - a guy you likely haven't faced much. This starter is only going a couple of innings so he's amped and just going to let it all hang out with his best stuff. He's followed by another guy just as good and unfamiliar.
In the middle innings the National League hitters had to contend with a hard throwing lefty, then the 100 MPH fastball and nasty slider of a guy who was coming off a recent no-hitter, then Johan Santana's change-up and 95 MPH heat. And after that they got a steady diet of the top closers in the American League. It's a testimonial to how good the NL hitters are that they made it close in the 9th.
The fact that a baseball all-star game is a tough low scoring affair also shows that it is a real game played for keeps - unlike hockey where a check is never thrown or basketball where they just run and gun for 48 minutes without any defense.

Sammy at 8

2007-06-28T14:40:00.000-04:00

Any cat owner has to bravely face the fact that your feline friend has a life expectancy of 15-20 years. At age eight our current pal Sammy is firmly into middle age. However even as an old timer, he still has quite a bit of life in him.
He's a big cat. Always a wide body type, Sammy probably weighs 18 lbs and frankly he could stand to lose a few. However he carries it well enough and still looks pretty good.
His coat remains silky soft and because he was gray to begin with he hasn't begun to show signs of age. He's a step or two slower and he enjoys his naps a bit more but don't we all.
He's very quiet - never meows unless he wants his dinner. Even then it's a tiny "mew". His best feature is an incredibly loud and deep purr that seems to get better every year. He can turn it on in an instant and keep going for half an hour.
He's kind and even tempered and loves to be with people. As I write this he's sitting at my feet, and that wonderful purr just started up again.

One Year Later

2007-06-20T14:42:00.000-04:00

As the summer solstice nears again, I am reminded of the fact that one year ago today we were in Helsinki on our Baltic cruise. The days at the 60th parallel were truly long even in comparison with those in Ottawa at this time of year. I believe in St Petersburg it started to get dark around 12 PM and was brightening up around 3 AM - no wonder they call 'em "White Nights."
It was a truly memorable vacation and I have to thank Sarah and Dave for convincing us we'd really enjoy cruising. Great food, unpack once and take your hotel with you, visit a bunch of great Maritime cities including the magnificent capital of Czarist Russia - I mean how bad could it be? We didn't need Gravol once, either.
We're planning to do it again in November. Barcelona to Venice by way of Istanbul (not Constantinople). I can't wait.

Living With Linux

2007-06-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

There appears to be a multi-stage process that takes place when one starts working with Linux on a PC.
It goes somewhat like this:
Stage 1 - Attraction
You need a new operating system for an old PC that isn't supported by Microsoft any more, or you are sick of Windows 98/Me crashes, viruses, worms, spyware. However you aren't ready to jump into the pool without a lifejacket.
At this point you can try a Linux distribution with a "Live CD" that will install and run the O/S from a CD-ROM. You may have to set up the PC so it'll boot from an optical disk drive but that's it. If you like what you see - and if you see anything at all at this stage it's a good sign the distro will work with your video card - you can move on to Stage 2.
Stage 2 - Installation
Here you actually install the Linux operating system on your hard drive. Although it's possible to get Linux to dual boot with Windows, I've always found it easier to blow Windows away and just reformat the hard drive and install Linux as the only option. This means you likely want to have a second PC available to play with, or a second hard drive you can swap in and out.
Some Linux distros have a very easy graphical installer; others are text based and more of a challenge for a newbie. No matter what, you'll likely choose the default installation and then find out that isn't the best way to set things up. No matter - you'll be reinstalling again (trust me).
Stage 3 - Aggravation
Here is where you find out that your video card drivers aren't quite right, or your wireless card doesn't work, or your printer is really just a Windows zombie, or you want to use WPA encryption and its a PITA to set up. You'll do lots of research and Google-ing, plus you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the Command Line and Linux file systems. Don't give up though.
Stage 4 - Experimentation
Here you'll discover that there are another 100-odd Linux distros out there and you can download them and install them if you want. You may actually find another one that's faster on old hardware, that looks cooler, or that's easier to configure. At one point you'll install and configure your Linux trial machine with about 3 different distros and I guarantee you'll cock up your original installation in the process. Now is a good chance to reinstall the right way with a separate partition for data at least.
Stage 5 - Maturation
You'll settle on the one Linux distribution that works best for you and just install that on your PC. You'll keep it up to date and learn to use it in preference to all the other ones. You might even get a text that deals specifically with your favorite distro. In my case it's Ubuntu, although I also use Vector Linux on a really old laptop I have. At this point you'll have arrived as a Linux user.

Retirement FUD

2007-06-18T11:58:00.000-04:00

It kills me how much disinformation and FUD there is out there about retirement planning these days.
I just read another article from a bunch of Waterloo actuaries that says that today's boomers are not saving enough and will be in danger of working until 75 or so - probably flipping burgers at Mickey D's - in order to survive in their old age.
The facts of the matter are much better stated by Malcolm Hamilton of Mercer Consulting:
(1) Most senior couples who are retired have more disposable income than working couples with a mortgage and kids to educate.
(2) You need about 40-50% of pre-retirement income (not 70%) to get by modestly.
(3) CPP and OAS will provide a fair chunk of your post-65 income. You need to save a bit to make up the difference but you don't need $2 million or so.
(4) Those of us fortunate enough to save in defined benefit pension plans, or put away a fair bit in RRSPs will be able to retire early or start a second career in our late 50s if we want to.
Read some articles by Malcolm Hamilton. He's telling the truth while a lot of so-called "planners" are just selling you snake oil. We are living proof that he's right.

Triple A

2007-06-09T08:53:00.000-04:00

After 50 years of interest in the game, two World Series, spring traning junkets, visits to numerous major league venues, etc. etc. - I finally attended my first minor league baseball game last night.
Sarah and Dave took me out to see the AAA Ottawa Lynx against the Durham Bulls. Crash Davis and Nuke LaLuche did not play for the Bulls.
Some brief observations:
(1) The Lynx are history in Ottawa. A stadium which can hold 10,000 people had barely 500 on a steamy June evening. Admittedly the weather was threatening, and a violent thunderstorm washed out the game after 6 innings. We got rainchecks for another one his year. Better use them quick.
(2) Lynx stadium is OK - nothing special about it except cavernous dimensions. It's built for speed and defense - a real pitcher's park.
(3) AAA baseball looks like the real thing - a step slower, a few miles per hour off the fastball - but pretty good. There are no real stars of the future at this level though - the hot prospects are honing their skills at AA. Mostly it's guys on the fringe of the majors - late 20s early 30s, hanging on for another shot at The Show.
(4) Kids love getting up close and personal with the players and coaches. Not a bad deal getting an autograph from Gary Gaietti, something that would not have been possible 10 years ago except with a lot of effort.
(5) Why is it that every pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris looks like the Martinez brothers? The Bulls had one last night - Tony Peguero. Tall and skinny with a lot of hop on his fastball.
(6) The triple is still the most exciting play in baseball. Ottawa has a talented and fast catcher named Jason Jaramillo. He smacked a two run triple to right center last night that won the game for the Lynx.
(7) There's just something special about the little things that makes baseball so great. The pitcher gets set to throw his last warm up pitch, jerks this thumb towards second base. The catcher shoots the ball down there, the infielders toss it around and back to the pitcher. So familiar, so appropriate, so ...well, baseball.

Antique Surfer

2007-06-07T06:51:00.000-04:00

It cost over $3000 when new, at a time when laptops were expensive curiosities for corporate executives. It was obsolete the day it was built. Its processor is at least 4 generations away from leading edge. It is maxed out at a now pathetic 160 Mb of RAM.
In its heyday it was designed as a standalone workstation, running an operating system that had internet access as an afterthought. It did not feature an ethernet card, let alone a wireless connection.
It's incredibly heavy, built like a tank. It has a great keyboard with a solid feel and a bright 13 inch TFT display. It's my 1998 Compaq Armada 1700. And I'm typing and publishing this post right now using it wirelessly.
I found it a few months ago in a recycling depot near Almonte, sitting on a battered old desk and selling for $50. A close inspection showed that it had a nearly new hard drive and everything else worked. At the time it was still running Windows 95 with a few glitches. The modem didn't have proper Microsoft drivers but I didn't care. I brought it home and the transformation began.
A trip to Nepean later, I had a used 128 Mb RAM module which I installed in the machine. I also got an ethernet PCMCIA which I plugged into the Cardbus slot. Then I got rid of Win '95, reformatted the hard drive and installed Vector Linux 5.8 Standard. This nifty operating system is perfect for old hardware - it even got an ancient ISA sound chip working. For a total of $100 I had a working notebook PC and a cable connection to broadband.
Later on I took a gamble that I could get the old Compaq to be wireless. I picked up an refurbished D-Link wireless PCMCIA card on eBay and after some configuration of Vector Linux, it works!
Now I can work wirelessly on an antique from the Clinton administration - a machine so outdated that Windows Me would have trouble running on it. Thank you Compaq for building such a quality machine, and thank you Vector Linux for bringing it into the 21st century.

Grandpa's Home

2007-06-04T15:52:00.000-04:00

It was 1976. Trudeau and Levesque were debating the future of Canada. Jimmy Carter was squaring off with Gerald Ford in the US. Disco-mania and the leisure suit were rampant. The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. And I finally realized a lifelong dream and got a grandfather clock.
It was hand built by my uncle's old friend Luther Gaylord - Luther was about 68 at the time and had retired from a long career as a cabinetmaker. My uncles delivered it personally to my home in Beaconsfield. They're all gone now, I'm an old man but the clock remains.
However, the heart and soul of the clock - a Kieninger A60 Westminster movement - had fallen upon hard times. It received an extensive rebuild and re-bushing in 1998, but after 31 years its plates were worn, its bushings were bushed, its cogwheels had all kinds of play in them, it didn't chime all that well and lubrication by a local clock repair guy couldn't fix it. After consultation with the repair expert, we decided the movement must be replaced with a new one.
So after six weeks, an order to Germany, some slight modification to a 31 year old pendulum and a week of test bed running, grandpa is back.
Luther was a sensible man with an eye for value, so he chose a reputable and established clock manufacturer for the original installation. Kieninger still makes new movements to this day. In fact it's now part of the Howard Miller clock group. The fact that Kieninger is still around made replacement relatively easy, actually.
So here's to Luther - craftsman and overall good guy. I'm sure he'd be glad to hear that after a heart transplant his good old clock is ticking like the well oiled machine it was, is, and hopefully will be.

Let It Be...Naked

2007-06-03T16:57:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah I'll admit it. Like most late 40s boomers I have a copy of "Let It Be" in my vinyl collection. However it's never been one of my favorite Beatles works, at least when compared with "Sgt. Pepper" or the White Album. It's got a collection of mostly great songs but it just didn't sound like a Beatles concept record to me when I first got it. Never has. Until now.
I just received a copy of the 2003 remastered and re-engineered "Let It Be - Naked" and it blows me away. I know it's a tricky proposition to redo a 1970 classic but it has been done beautifully. The sound is crystal clear, the murky Wall of Sound expunged completely. The between tracks chatter has disappeared. Two real pieces of crap are gone, replaced by the John Lennon composition "Don't Let Me Down". The order of songs is changed so that "Get Back" opens the compilation and "Let It Be" closes it.
The Beatles minus all the strings and voices sound like well, the Beatles - with an uncanny sort of basic energy that would be right at home in the New Wave to come 10 years later.
It's probably naive revisionist history to assert that this is the "director's CD" - the one the Beatles really wanted to make. After all John and George are dead, and we know how much Paul wanted to redo "The Long and Winding Road" without all the dreck. Maybe this remixed CD is a bit of a nod to Paul's ego - but you know, he was right. "The Long and Winding Road" comes out as a thing of beauty when it gets naked.
I don't think you could get away with such radical surgery on a truly great Beatles album like "Revolver" or "Magical Mystery Tour" but it certainly has worked with "Let It Be."

Good Enough

2007-05-30T10:44:00.000-04:00

I remember in the 1980s and 90s when PC technology seemed to be improving daily, there was always a reason to get a better computer system:
(1) Processor too slow or obsolete.
(2) Replace tape drive with floppy drive then mini-floppy drive then hard drive.
(3) Hard drive lacking capacity.
(4) Move from text to graphics interface.
(5) Graphics card or graphics interface obsolete.
(6) Monitor too small.
(7) Move from 14.4K to 28.8K to 56K dial-up, then broadband.
(8) Move from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows Me to XP.
Finally, in my world the "era of good enough" arrived around 2001. A machine of that ilk is good enough to run office applications and broadband Net stuff - even Quick Time with enough memory. I'm not a gamer so an obsolete AGP video card is adequate. When Windows 98/Me became obsolete all I had to do was boost the memory on my old PCs up to 512 Mb. That's plenty to run Linux or XP well. No need to buy a new machine to run Vista.
As long as my hardware holds out, I don't see the need to ever get a new PC. Even if it doesn't, I can search for a 2004-2005 era used one, or buy a cheap "ready to go" whitebox unit and install Linux on it.
It must really suck to be a mainstream PC maker these days. What can you offer besides a lame new operating system that really isn't needed?

Hanging 'Em Up

2007-05-30T08:28:00.000-04:00

After 39 years in the food business, I've decided to retire completely.
After I left Unilever and moved to Almonte, I kept busy a couple of days a week working as a volunteer in a small fairtrade coffee company called Equator.
However it became a fairly large physical and temporal commitment and I really need to think about doing something else.
Yesterday was my final day at Equator and in the food industry, a career I began as a summer student in May 1968. It's been a good run, but even "The Phantom" had to close eventually.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

2007-05-27T10:34:00.000-04:00

This Goffin - King masterpiece was first charted as a #1 hit by the Shirelles in 1961. Since then it's been remade a few times - by Carole herself, the Bee Gees, Roberta Flack, Laura Branigan, Cher, Melanie, Dusty Springfield, Joe Walsh, Bryan Ferry, Neil Diamond, Shawn Colvin, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to name a few.
But the best remake in my view is Dave Mason's rendition from his underrated and out of distribution 1978 album "Mariposa de Oro."
Late 70s purists will hate it; it's one of the last of the great "Wall of Sound" hits before the New Wavers brought rock back to the basics.
However for those who appreciate the New Romantic sounds of the 1980s, this lovely recording is a must. It's got it all: 12 string guitar melding into silky strings, electric organ, doo-wop harmonies, Mason's straightforward vocal, a superb electric guitar solo, and a brilliant conclusion where the famous question is repeated a couple of times and then morphs into a bittersweet minor key. This great song by a great artist is available on "Dave Mason's Greatest Hits" and is well worth a listen.

The Kids Are Alright

2007-05-26T11:37:00.000-04:00

One of the cool things about getting old and having adult children is watching them make those lifestyle decisions you had to make 30 years ago, and vicariously reliving the moment.
Dave and Sarah have been looking for a house near Ottawa for a few months now. They wanted a place close to town with public transit available. They decided to concentrate on a community just east of downtown called Blackburn Hamlet.
This enclave of mostly 60s and 70s homes is quite self contained, closer to the city than similar locations in the west end and best of all - surrounded by Capital Region greenbelt. No new development means lots of parkland, but basically what you see is what you get- limited supply and high demand. Only about 40 homes a year go on the market.
After viewing about 10 homes, they saw one they liked. It was an OK two storey with 4 bedrooms. They tried an offer but a bidding war ensued and they lost out.
They continued looking and I must admit we were advising them to broaden their horizons. It didn't seem that anything would come up in Blackburn Hamlet. Then about a week ago they got what they were looking for. Side split, 4 bedrooms, parklike setting - a real home lovingly maintained by the original owner. Their offer did the job and they are homeowners as of August 15. Well done kids. You showed me (again) that Father doesn't always know best.

Still A Dinosaur

2007-05-26T09:10:00.000-04:00

I've been using Nikon SLR film cameras for 25 years so you'd expect I'd have switched to digital with a D50, D80, or D200 camera body by now. You'd expect that, but you'd be wrong. When it comes to SLRs I'm still a dinosaur.
Oh I have a digicam alright. It's a Nikon Coolpix 5000 from 2001 or so. Takes nice 5Mp pics for my computer or email. And it works with my older Nikon Speedlights.
However a DSLR is another matter.
First of all, there's the question of crap getting on the sensor. That's no problem with a sealed digital camera like the Coolpix, but dust and dirt is a fact of life with a digital SLR. Cleaning off the sensor is about as appealing to me as washing a speck of dust off my eyeball.
Second, a DSLR has a crop factor that effectively multiplies the focal length of interchangeable lenses. Almost every one of my compact and fast fixed focal length lenses gets hosed. My 50 mm normal lens becomes an 75mm telephoto. What's worse, my 24mm wide angle becomes a 36mm equivalent lens. To get wide angle capability back with a DSLR I'd need to buy a 12-24 DX zoom lens - another $1200.
Third, my Nikon Speedlights are incompatible with a DSLR. I'd have to get a new one for $400 or so.
Finally, I'd need more CF cards, batteries, chargers and adapters to take the DSLR to Euope or any other overseas holiday.
Net cost to go digital with an SLR is close to $2500. That is a lot to pay just to do what I can still accomplish with film.
No, as long as 35mm film can be purchased and processed, I'll stick with film for holiday photography. I just get a CD made from the negatives when the prints are made, and I'm all set with both analog and digital.

Achilles Heel

2007-05-25T14:56:00.000-04:00

This post is being written and published wirelessly from a laptop running Linux - which in itself is a minor miracle of sorts.
If there is one area where Windows kicks Linux butt it is in wifi - especially if the wireless uses WPA encryption.
My son-in-law came over a few weeks ago with his XP laptop and wanted to connect to my router. I gave him the encryption passphrase, he typed it in and 15 seconds later he was connected and surfing the Web.
To get this Linux machine to do the same thing:
(1) I needed to get a proper PCMCIA card that is compatible with Linux. There are many wifi adapters that are not - you can usually wrap up a Windows driver so it'll work with any given card but that takes a bit of programming. Or you can build a driver using Linux source code (assuming you can find it). In my case I planned ahead and bought the proper card.
(2) I needed to teach the machine to recognize the fact that my router is sending out WPA encrypted wifi information. Again some programming of configuration files in Linux was needed.
(3) I then had to tell the machine to get a local network address for the wireless connection when it starts up. More programming was needed.
Steps 2 and 3 required some additional research to figure out precisely how the programming needed to be done and where the steps were placed in the Linux configuration files.
The result is that a 30 second connection in Windows required a day or so of research and futzing around in Linux. And that's with a wifi adapter that works.
Until Linux development gets this stuff sorted out better, most folks will just want to use Windows for wifi. If Linux has an achilles heel it is wireless.