murrays

Wolfram|Alpha tells me that as of November 24, 2009 I quit smoking 9,702 days ago. Coming up on 10,000 days sometime next year. When I first quit I quit for ten seconds at a time. Whenever I was having a nicotine fit I would take ten deep breaths and count to ten. Somehow they added up to days, weeks, months and years. You have to learn to enjoy doing things that you associate with cigarettes (like coffee) without cigarettes. Work was hell...back then you could smoke at work and I was surrounded by smokers doing 12 hour shifts. But, if I did it, anybody can. I smoked for 16 years and tried to quit dozens of times. And, I know I am only one cigarette away from being enslaved again. Keep trying. As Winston Churchill said, "Never give up, never give up, never give up." -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame mentioned the litl in his recent post titled "OS Opportunity" wherein he argues that PC Makers that want to succeed should create their own OSes. He holds up the litl as an example of what can be done. I'd never heard of this device before yesterday but I can certainly see how it would appeal to a huge number of people. Check it out and share your thoughts. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Good one! Interesting that the 4 guys just inducted into the HHOF (Leetch, Yzerman, Robitaille and Brett Hull) all spoke out for easing off on the instigator rule, no-touch icing and less padding/protection for players to reduce the injuries. They also wanted immediate suspensions for hitting from behind with no assessment of whether an injury occurred or not. Let Bob Probert types straighten out guys that try to hurt your players and lessen the padding so that the person hitting feels it as much as the person being hit was their reasoning. How can Gary Bettman argue with those guys? Murray

Andrew, thanks for educating me on how our process works! I can see the Libs and NDPers voting for it to avoid backlash from their rural areas all the while thinking it won't matter because the Liberals in the Senate who don't have to face an election will kill it. I sure hope that doesn't turn out to be the case. Murray

Canadian Members of Parliament vote tonight on a private member's bill that will abolish the Canadian Long Gun Registry if passed. I'm not a gun owner but I sure hope that this bill passes. The gun registry has been a very expensive waste of taxpayers' money that hasn't saved one life or kept guns out of the hands of criminals. I have my fingers crossed. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I'm going to have to ask my rancher friend out at the lake whether he has lost any calves to coyotes as the three that I saw were a couple of miles from where he keeps his cattle. I love listening to them yipping at night but my appreciation for their wildness is now going to be tempered by caution where my boys are concerned. I am against the carrying of firearms in National Parks. Our Parks (speaking as a Canadian on Canadian parks) were created to preserve the wilderness for future generations. If you aren't willing to accept the risks of traveling unarmed in a National Park that contains animals that can kill and eat you.....then don't go in them. The preservation of habitat is crucial to a large species such as the grizzly. They don't need to be at risk inside the parks that should be treated as their refuge. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Here's a pretty good comparison. Basically, it compares very well. Regarding the comment about Verizon charges, check out this post on Verizon charges for Exchange support. John Gruber of the Daring Fireball blog linked to this with the comment, "So starts the Verizon nickel and diming." Edited to add that the Droid is the only phone with Google's new GPS, turn by turn, etc ability which looks very cool from what I have read about it. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Over the last ten years Apple's stock performance has been outstanding. Microsoft has been treading water for the most part. Had you bought either when they went public you'd be very happy. Happier with Microsoft but in the last ten years...since Steve Jobs came back and Bill Gates handed MS to Fester (Steve Ballmer) Microsoft's shares have been doing nothing and Apple has been on a tear. Here's a chart for the last five years from Yahoo Finance. If you can find a place to do a ten year comparison I think the difference is greater. The last five years with MS you have a negative return and with Apple you have a 600% return...that's in five years!! One of the greatest regrets I have in life was not buying Apple just after the first iPods came out. They were trading for about $12 a share with $10 a share in cash. Yesterday they closed at $188 or something and they now have about $32 a share in cash. I fucking thought about it over and over again but couldn't do it after having made a lot of money and then losing it in the dot com meltdown. It's not all bad news though..I did buy @ $139 a while ago so I'm up $50/share in about 2 years - 30 some percent. Apple is a very well run company. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

The ones that I have seen don't look that big but they are larger than I expected a coyote to be. I'd guess them to weigh 30-40 pounds. Bushier coats than the photos of the two dead ones posted above. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Very sad news...and shocking. I live on the Canadian Prairies and grew up here over 40 years ago. I never once saw a coyote as a kid growing up. This past summer I have seen coyotes 6 or 7 times. Including spotting three in 5 minutes while driving to our cabin just 90 minutes from the city. I have heard of coyotes being very aggressive on an off-leash area just a few blocks from where I live in Saskatoon. This summer the police shot a cougar inside city limits. There have been many reports of cougar sightings over the last few years in and near the city. There used to be a farm family living on every section of land...most with a rifle or two or three and any coyote or fox that came near was shot before they had a chance to get at the chickens or anything else. I think these coyotes avoided all contact with us as a result. I don't think there were any cougars around at all as I never heard of any sightings. They were an animal that lived in the mountains of British Columbia. These days there is nobody around out in the country as the family farms have disappeared and the wild life is flourishing. Are these animals losing their fear of humans because they aren't being shot at, because they haven't developed the fear of humans? I used to tramp around in the bush near our cabin when I was a kid but I am very hesitant to let my two boys, 10 and 12, do the same after hearing of something like this happening as I know there are lots of coyotes around our cabin. I've seen them and I often hear them yipping at night. Is this recovery of wildlife something that is happening in other places? Are incidents with aggressive coyotes becoming more commonplace? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Android is looking really sweet. And WM not so sweet. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Software Update just downloaded 153MB HP driver update last night. I was playing with the printer config (which I had not done previously), and it suddenly wanted the update. I get the impression that using the printer config utility may have triggered it. For scanning I always use the web interface on my all-in-one printer, so I've never had occasion to try using sw in the OS for that. My HP printer at home didn't have a driver for about 3 weeks after SL came out. It automatically went and got the driver when it was released as a software update. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Interesting. The iMac on my desk here at work is running at 41 to 42 degrees celsius...running Excel, accounting programs, mail and web browser. It would be interesting to see what the temperature gets to if doing things more processor intensive like rendering video, etc. If I put my hand at the top of the machine it is definitely warm but no fans ever kick in on my work machine. I do get the fans running on my black MacBook at home. I'll have to check and see what sort of temps it runs at. Do you know how hot those laptops are running? What fails on these machines due to the heat? Murray

Mark, Would these laptops be getting heavier use and abuse than what an average user would put on a personal machine? Mine (2 imacs, One Macbook) have stood up fairly heavy use at home with no problems but they aren't being packed into bags and lugged around all the time. Murray

In the last ten years since I bought my first Mac I bought the extended warranty once. Never used it. I've owned 3 Macs personally and about 10 where I work. Nothing has died or had an issue I couldn't resolve myself.....except for my 2 and 4 year olds jamming two CDs into the slot loading drive on my original iMac, an issue with OS 9 I couldn't figure out and the kids once again doing something that froze the original iMac up and required a trip to the local Mac dealer. Total cost less than Applecare for one computer. So, I'm not sold on buying Applecare. Perhaps for a first time Mac user it might be a good idea to get the 3 years of technical support. It should be noted that you can buy the Applecare warranty up to a year after you purchase your Mac so you've got time to think about it. For people close to an Apple Store I think buying Applecare is less compelling due to the tech support offered therein. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

You won't be able to get a refurbed new model with the 21.5" screen for quite a while as they were just released last week. For the amount you'd save on a 20" refurb over the new 21.5" LED backlit screen....I'd go with the new model. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I am finding this thread very informative and helpful. One question that I have regarding plasma sets. They are hotter and use more energy than LCDs but do they use more energy than a CRT tube tv? (I have a 32" Sony CRT) Cheers, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Scott, I am curious whether you feel the chapter on edged weapons in "On Killing" holds water or not. (Chapter 5 - Killing at Edged-Weapons Range:An "Intimate Brutality") Regards, Murray

Actually, the problem is with the OS for her...Mac works for her and Windows didn't. Hey, don't get me started on my MIL issues Like somebody said up above, Mac OS X is great for the illiterate and the geeky ones that love the Unix stuff. She's one of the illiterate and the Mac is a better choice for her. No doubt in my mind. I love being able to run anything on my Macs...I use Fusion to run XP and Linux. I use XP to run tax programs and I just run Linux to say I can, I don't really do anything with it but it looks cool having them all going at once with a Terminal window open as well. I think a Mac gives you more choices ... you really don't have to give anything up. I hope that Windows 7 is a great OS. That will drive Apple to improve OS X even more. I have installed Snow Leopard and I could easily have lived without it. Some more competition from MS would be good I think. I could see myself building a machine with Windows 7 running if it is as good as some reports I've read. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I'd say that a lot of PC users also can't see that for some people a Mac makes much more sense....so it's not just us smug arrogant Mac users running around with that mindset.

Out of all the various trades, signings, moves, etc made this off-season, the latest trade between the Sens and the Sharks is the one that caught my interest. Is Heatley going to be an asset to the Sharks? Is he enough to get them to the Finals? Or will he destroy the vibe in the locker room? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I thought One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a great film adaptation of the book. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

dru, Do you have the latest version of iTunes? Likely best to update and be sure. Have you purchased any applications yet? Try using the App Store on the Touch, download/purchase a free app or something you want and it will download and install itself directly on the Touch. The next time you sync it should be backed up to iTunes. If you can't get it to work if you have warranty..call Apple. If not, check out the support forums on the apple website...under the Support tab :-) Good luck, Murray

I would be financially ruined if we had had to pay for Patty's treatment....of that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind. The thing up here that can bite you is drugs not covered by a provincial drug plan. There have been a couple of recent cases where very expensive cancer drugs were having to be paid for by the patient. My worry is that Patty will at some time require one of these drugs. After paying Blue Cross premiums for many years it has been an unpleasant surprise to find out that they do not cover anything that is not on the list of "formulary" drugs. So, the portion of drug costs not covered by the provincial plan is not reimbursed by Blue Cross. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

TK my old friend, it seems that our experience may have slipped your mind. Patty (my wife, also an old friend of TK's) was sent to Seattle for her stem cell transplant by the province of Saskatchewan and they paid for all medical costs. ALL medical costs. I have no doubt that her treatment cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. We were out of pocket about $20k for travel and accommodations down there.....a pittance really considering Patty's condition and necessary treatment. Sending certain leukemia patients to Seattle is common practice in Saskatchewan. We don't have the facilities for particular types of stem cell treatment. We were told that they tried to find her a space for treatment in Calgary and Vancouver which do have the necessary facilities but that there wasn't space available. Without the US system having available "slots" we don't know how long she would have had to wait for treatment in Canada. Her treatment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre and University of Washington was state-of-the-art and excellent in every regard. Aside from the fact that her condition wasn't treatable in Saskatchewan, her service in Canada has always been prompt and timely. Patty never had to pay for anything down in the US. It was billed directly to the Province. I can't imagine having to navigate the bureaucracy of insurance and so on that US patients have to deal with. I have no doubt that both the US and Canadian systems can stand to be improved. The Canadian system worked for us financially and the US system provided the treatment. I think we were lucky to receive the best of both systems. Cheers, Murray