our life

Man this could be bad...

There is a property just south of Guelph that my father is very excited about. We are considering buying this property, my parents, and hang and I, and building a house.

Frankly I am more excited about the Terraview and Pidel homes we have been looking at recently, but the land is very nice, and a good investment. We have been looking at a builder called Quality Homes who would create a prefab house for the property.

Sadly would you believe one of the biggest issues for me on deciding which house to buy is the internet. Yup. Not being able to have Cable internet is what is making me unexcited about this really nice property in the south end.

I have been looking at this solution. Direcway - a Hughs satelite company. Its sold by regional resellers. I looked at a few and pretty much narrowed it down to LinCast. They are a platinum reseller, and its a pretty good deal with them. $85 a month ( ouch ), but unlike most of the others, the installation is free. I still want to confirm that also means that the hardware is included. Can't figure this out for sure from the page.

Speed is 500K down and 50K up. Ya its slow by cable standards, but much better then dialup.

What has me worried though is the FAP. They make sure you don't overuse the service. You get 169 megs per 1-4 hours of use. Go over that and you get throttled to dialup speeds. This guys site explains it pretty well.

So I'd pay more, get less speed, and would basically have to give up hosting my own servers. I really wouldn't have to give it up, but at 50K it would almost unusably slow. So I'd have to look at hosting which frankly I'm not happy about.

So he got me thinking...

A co-worker of mine and I got talking today and the topic of his Civic Hybrid came up. I had to be honest and had to admit that I didn't think the car from a cost efficiency perspective made sense. I also had to admit that I did not think Civic Hybrids actually got the mileage that the government tests say it can get - while the gas civic likely got better then better then the government tests, in the same way I have manged to get better numbers then what the Canadian Government states for our car.

So I did some internet searching to see what else I could find - I wanted to see what others have been saying on this subject. First thing I found was this WIRED magazine article which brought me to the Blog site of a fellow named Pete Blackshaw who created a web site about the purchase of his car - a Honda Civic Hybrid. He has been getting about 31 MPG average which is well below what the EPA numbers are for the car. Obviously because of the media attention he has been noticed by Honda who have requested that he make sure that his car doesn't have any problems. So he has taken the car to another dealership for a second opinion. They set the tire pressure and did a 4 wheel alignment and this improved the mileage to 36 MPG for his best run - still well below the EPA numbers.

This however is a person...who perhaps isn't driving the car optimally. So I searched some more.

I then found Motor Trends articles that they did on the one year test for a Civic Hybrid. I like these one years they do, since most people on staff and family members get a shot at the car, and everyone writes comments - this is much more realistic then a short review by one reporter, written after spending a few hours with a car.

"The savings in fuel and taxes don't do enough for me to alleviate the pain of the sticker price and the cost of a new battery down the road. Especially when gasoline is cheaper than milk. Why not buy a Civic HX that gets 44 mpg highway for $13,700 and use the extra money to plant a few hundred trees?" --Reilly Brennan

I think that quote from the logbook summed up most of what the MT staff and family felt about the car. The EPA says 46/51(city/highway) for the car - the MT year average was 40 MPG. So if the Hybrid costs $20K US, and the HX model is almost $14K, but the hybrid gets less fuel economy then the HX, it obviously will never pay itself off with a fuel economy difference. Both cars are ULEV rated ( at the time MT looked at the cars ), so both are the same from an environmental perspective.

MT also did a comparison of all the Hybrids on the market currently ( US Market ). Included in the tests are some detailed mileage tests. They also explain in detail how they did the test, so there is little room to dismiss the test as unrealistic. They posted the mileages they got. The same thing happened in these controlled tests - a real world loop products lower fuel economy numbers.

I looked a bit further. I found two other Blog sites for hybrids. The first of these was this one - Hybrid cars - the forums are starting to get people in them talking. For the Honda civic people are claiming numbers from 40 to 48 MPG. The next blog is pretty much the same ( this guy really liked his Civic ), the persons average so far is 45 MPG.

Nobody really touched on it in great detail but there are issues tied with the batteries. Driving up a long hill or with a heavily loaded car will force the hybrid system to depend a lot on its electric assist, which then has to be charged - this greatly affects fuel mileage. Also later in life, as the batteries age and hold less charge again the same thing happens...engine spends more time charging. Then there is the winter - batteries hold less energy and require higher voltages to charge - again all at the expense of fuel economy.

My other concerns about the Hybrids are the longevity of the vehicles. If you need several years to make back the extra money spent - the vehicle has to last that long without major repair. Starting and stopping the motor to save fuel is also very hard on the engine ( lubrication 101 stuff ), you have a much more complicated engine/transmission system, and lastly the batteries which are expensive have warrenties that are shrinking - due to failure rates.

That all said - I still think hybrid technology has its place - its not cost effective. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that Honda and Toyota are okay with loosing a bit of money on each car sold on a curve so that later versions will eventually have a tiny profit margin, these cars would be even more cost ineffective. They represent a way for car manufacturers to introduce alternative energy cars. Get people used to the idea. For the consumer in area's where the cars are further subsidized by tax rebates, and where the car qualifies you to drive in HOV lanes, this can make the car a good choice. Basically this is a transitional technology - not a solution. IMHO

Don't forget to wax your windshield...

I recently waxed the car with this stuff. I used to use different Turtle wax products, but I've always wanted to try this product. I pick my waxes based on how well they protect and last vs shine. Turtle Wax super hard shell is a good once a year product, but it doesn't shine as well as some products. This Nufinish shines well, but like the Turtle wax product, its priority is how well it protects, not shines.

I never used it but I've been in cars that have used it - Rain-X - a product that you put on your windshield and then when it rains you don't need your wipers, the rain just falls on the windshield. It is a silicon and acrylic based wax product. Which happens to be exactly what Nufinish is as well - SO - I decided I'm gonna use the Nufinish on the windshield too.

We drove to Toronto today, and on the way I got to test it out - severe driving rain on the highway. Worked amazing! I was ripping along the 401 and the WORSE the rain gets, the BETTER I can see. On the back window it worked great as well. I didn't need to use the wipers.

The other great thing is that since the water just falls off the car when it stopped raining, the car dried as I drove, and no dirt stuck to the car! I am completely amazed at this product.

Feeling fresh again

Did the oil change on the Vibe today. Its a lot easier to do on this car then on the Jetta. The area around the filter is very open so its easy to reach and change.

I however did have to buy a new oil wrench at crappy tire because these damn jap cars have such small oil filters. Fram just in time for me started selling there extended drain synthetic oil filters up here. They are good for 11,000 miles. So I grabbed a few of these. One for me, and one for the other cars that I do the yearly oil changes on. Since car companies are moving to using synthetics and long drain times, the oil filter companies now have this new category of filter. It is a metal re-inforced filter. It looks to be a decent product. I'm not a big fan of FRAM, but they seem to be able to make a decent product if you just avoid the big orange Extraguard. The curious part though is that in the states this filter is called the X2 and rated at 7K miles, here its call Extended Guard and rated at 11K miles. Odd. Also at Crappy tire its $10 canadian, while the X2 looks to be priced higher. Otherwise they look to be the same filter.

I ended up buying some of the Petro Canada Duron 5w40 Synthetic. $19.99 for 4L. I was considering the Esso XD3 0w40 since its $16 for 4L, but I'd have to buy it in Etobicoke and that would to far to drive to get oil. The PC product I can get locally.

Next thing to be changed is the transmission fluid. I want to change it to a Chevron product that I really like, but since the fluid in the transmission is brand new maybe it would make sense to at least let it stay in there for a year during the next oil change. There are basically two kinds of extreme pressure anti wear additives - sulfur and borate based products. Sulfur ones damage soft metals, like the ones in the transmission. So you have different grades. You have find a comprimise between how much antiwear additive you need, and not to much so that it ends up doing more damage then the metal to metal wear from the gears. Now borate on the other doesn't harm things. So you can put more then you need and it will just do a better job while not damaging things. Chevron is currently the only company who sells such EP products. This product works so well that in truck transmissions that call for Synthetic products to meet warrenty requirements for extended drain times, this is the only product listed as an exception. So its great - the borate based antiwear additive works better then sulfur based ones, works at really low temps, and can be combined with group II oils to make a product that is 1/4 the price, and works as well or better.

Oh I have to give it back??

Got the email from Yak that the trial is over and they plane to launch the product. So I'll get mailed a box to send the thing back. If I want the product ( I don't ), then I can sign up and get the thing mailed back ( seems dumb ).

I've tried other trials and the companies usually offer you something to keep you on after the trial as a customer. Not in this case. Which is fine since we likely wouldn't have taken it. Our Mike phones are meeting our needs.

So it looks like we are going to have some local calling competition. Primus has a VOIP product, but they are now also entering the POTS ( plain old telephone switching ) market too. So you can switch your bell line to Sprint and now Primus. Right now they are MUCH cheaper then both. Sprint started out this way, and now they cost MORE, so we'll see what Primus does. In the mean time, when they get service for Guelph I'll hook my parents up with them. They are currently being ripped off by Sprint.

As of September 8th, you will be able to purchase the Yak VoIP products from the yak web store and subscribe to the new service offering. The offering consists of:

Free local and long distance telephone service over your broadband internet connection to Canada, US, China and Hong Kong. Plus 5 enhanced calling features consisting of :

  Voice Mail

  Caller ID

  Call Forwarding

  Three Way Calling

  Yak personal call manager on-line portal

The cost for this new service offering will be:

Monthly fee - $24.95 per month
Installation Charge - $39.95 one time fee
One year minimum term – early termination $50.00

YAK WorldCity Team

So now I'm back to keeping my eye out for the next thing I can 'trial' for a company. Its kinda fun...I test stuff at work for a living, so why not test at home for fun.

Project - no more empty walls

This is an ongoing project. We've put up pictures. We've found some nice frames at Walmart, Ikea, and even the dollar store. We've put up some chinese paintings, but we both really wanted to find some vietnamese art.

In china town so far we've not had any luck. When we are at some of the vietnamese restaurants, the owners tell us that the art they have they got from back back and they can't think of anywhere here to buy it, so I went looking on ebay.

I buy lots of things on ebay already, so why not this.

Found this painting. Right now its got 6 days to go and there is one bid at 1 penny right now. I set my max bid at $15, and auctionstealer is set to snipe 5 seconds before the ending.

If it works I need to find a nice frame. I looked in the new 2005 ikea catalogue and I think another drive to Ikea might work out. If not we can continue into China town and find something.

I also found two other ebay stores that sell some good vietnamese art - Here and Here.

Snowwalker

I am really excited when I get to watch a good Canadian movie, and I've had some luck finding a few good ones from time to time. This movie came on PPV just recently and I honestly didn't think it was a Canadian movie - I suspected a Hollywood movie of course. I was however wrong, and very happy about that. Its a Canadian film, and from my point of view this is the best canadian film I've ever watched.

I've watched Canadian movies that have spooked me, made me think, but I really can't say that I've watched one that really moved me until I saw this one.

The best part of the movie is the story behind female main character ( Annabella Piugattuk) in the film She is a native canadian, and all the things that she does in the film are skills that she had before making the film - she IS the character in the film.

There is a making of the film and I really want to try to find the DVD of the movie so I can see it. Aparently during the making of the film they had to have guards watching the set to keep polar bears away. There was even a close call one time when a bear charged everyone on the set.

You have to watch this CBC interview. She's a very interesting person - I really hope to see her get picked for some more roles in decent Canadian films.

Don't be Evil

In a word, Google's goal is to do important stuff that matters to a lot of people. In pursuit of that goal, we've developed a set of values that drive our work, including one of our most cherished core values: "Don't be evil."

Time will tell whether this really turns out to be a true goal of Google, but as large companies buy more and more smaller companies thus turning them into huge companies that eventually will merge with companies in other countries and form large multinationals - I hope Good wins out over Evil.

My dad worked for a company that was part of the Weston Group - think food - and they are a good example of a bad company. This one example explains it well. When I was a kid and my dad was working with them, there were many small bakeries in Toronto. Weston came up with a great strategy. They would engage the bakeries with large orders, large enough that they'd have to go out and borrow money to expand and then they'd pull orders or not continue orders. The companies would then be put in a bad situation - some would go bankrupt.

Guess who would come in and make an offer to buy them out - ya the Weston group.

Ever wonder when you buy your Presidents choice products who makes them? Yup, the former companies that were once private and later bought by the Weston group. Clever eh?

People slam Walmart - and they have good reasons to slam them too - but Walmart does NOT do this. They choose to work with many local companies first. They are tough customers and work out pretty tough contracts but if you are aggressive with them like they are with you - it can be a fair game - just bring your lawyers.

I am lucky. I work for an ethical company. I'm not saying this to brag...its not like that. Its more about me learning.

I grew up thinking that life wasn't fair, and that you basically looked out for yourself - that is unless you join forces with a group, a team. I've formed teams at various points in my life to ahh...'get stuff done'...and I basically just thought thats the way it was. Never saw value in ethics - saw it as a weakness.

At our last 'session', which are informal meetings with upper management to tell people in the departments whats going on, this topic came up. The talk was about markets we chose to stay in and why, and also how we were choosing to negotiate services with other companies. We weren't pulling out of unprofitable markets. We will loose money, but we are going to service all markets - we are here to serve canadians. We will RFP once - no putting companies against each other to bid themselves to death.

My first reaction was feeling this was showing a sign of weakness. After those sessions I started to look around and see where the world would go if on a corporate level most companies operated like this. I get it now - we'd be living in a pretty awful world. We are moving to a world that is basically owned by fewer and fewer companies. Companies are becoming stronger then the countries they exist in. If these companies aren't ethical we are in trouble.

All I feel now is that I hope that being an ethical company doesn't hurt us, but I am happy to working for a company that tries to do right.

Car platforms

Most people aren't likely aware that car companies accross the planet have been trying to simplify car lines as much as possible to reduce costs. One very big way this is done is by creating car platforms and then using them to build several cars using the same rolling chassis.

Toyota does this with the corolla. This platform becomes the Corolla of course, but also is the same platform that becomes the Matrix, the Pontiac Vibe, the Celica, and in the UK they have another kind of Corolla and a car called the Corolla Verso.

Verso means tall wagon version of a normal car. What some companies are calling Hybrids here. Basically its a trend that has been going on for a long time ( decades ) in Asia, and as the rest of the world has be moving toward more practical cars, the trend has been spreading to even North America.

I so wish Toyota would bring this car here. We have the Matrix which is designed for our market so it makes more sense here. Its cost effective (cheap), fuel efficient, and has a huge interior volume to outside vehicle size ratio. That said the Verso take this to the next level, but in perhaps ways that wouldn't sell here.

I like the styling first of all even more...but the options are what really have me jelous. You can get Toyota's 2.0L Common Rail diesel engine as an option. GPS nagivation and climate control are options - not ones I would pick, but it shows the range that this car is marketed to. In europe car companies offer more options on cars then we get. We tend to get more simplified packages. Mainly because here if we wanted to spend more money, we'd buy a bigger car. In europe people will option out smaller cars that we would never do.

The other kewl thing is this car has a third row seat. Again something that would not likely appeal here ( we'd just get a mini van ), but I think its pretty kewl, and its the hideaway kind of seats too.

If I had the option I'd so want a base Verso with the Diesel option. Its a pretty great engine. It has 114HP and 206lb.ft of Torque. So its powerful. Its really fuel efficient - the version that is put in the Yaris ( what we call an Echo ) gets the same mileage as a Toyota Prius ( 4.4L/100kms combined ) and gets almost the same CO2 load ( 117g/100kms) as the Prius. However the cost for the engine is about the same as a gasoline engine, while the Prius's engine means basically a $12000 premium. Then there is the issue of the fact has gasoline costs a fair amount more then Diesel, and the manufacturing of Gasoline creates 20% more pollution then Diesel.

Most of the time I do not think Hybrid technology makes sense ( not cost effective - not as reliable - not as safe ), but Toyota has at least optimized it to the point that if your in the right market ( California ), with enough tax incentives, it does allow you get a mid sized car that gets the milage of a sub compact.

For the rest of us though, the common rail and direct injection diesel technologies have reached similar emission levels ( so both the hybrid and the diesels product 2/3 the C02 load of an average gas car ), almost as good gas mileage but at much better price points. More importantly though is that Diesel is less environmentally harmful to create and can be blended with Biodiesel - so we can use a renewable energy source that even further reduces the CO2 load ( Biodiesel run at 100% would produce a CO2 load that is better then a hybrid ).

I hope Toyota considers bring more of its Diesels to North America. Lets hope with the new diesel for 2006 ( with less sulfur then gasoline ) will allow all of these cars to come here.

Interactive TV - TV of the future.

Interactive TV is here.

This is so kewl and I hate sports. Just having fun playing with all the content on the channels.

Yak Beta Trial update

So friday I got home to find a fedex package sitting on my porch. Ya just sitting on the porch. I love Fedex for this. I have a card filled with them for an alternative dropoff, but they NEVER use it. They at random will either drop it off at a neighbour, or leave things at some random stop that they think I will find it - obviously never considering anyone else could just take it.

We had stuff to do on the weekend, so I only allotted friday evening to play with the MediaTrix VOIP gateway. The intructions were very IKEA, with plently of pictures to explain what could be confusing with only text.

Basically the deal is this. 1 computer - plug the cable/dsl modem to the gateway, and then the computer to the gateway. Multiple computers and a router/NAT box - basically the same, except that in place of the 1 computer connected to the gateway, you plug your router/NAT box to it.

Sounds easy eh? It didn't work however. The gateway didn't work, and the NAT box couldn't see the cable modem through the gateway.

So I just connected the gateway to the house switch, and plugged the phones in and left it for the weekend. I figured monday I'd call Yak and ask for some help. This evening when I was ready to work on it, I gave the phone a try and guess what - it works! Made a test call, and everything worked fine. So sitting behind the NAT box, it configured itself and now works.

So the deal is for the period of the trial ( no end date set yet ), we get this thing for free, and get to call planet wide. Our part of the deal is we have to give feedback so they know whats working and whats not. Sounds fair to me.

Hangs big brother

Saturday we went to spend the day with Hangs big brother, his fiance, and her family. We started the day having Dim Sum at a place in kitchener. Lots of great food. I think I surprised members of the family who were meeting me for the first time since I was eating things they thought I wouldn't, and could use chop sticks - nothing special really, but ppl do make assumptions when they see what they think is just a white guy eating chinese.

After this we scooted down to brantford to pick up more family and then we were off to Niagara falls. I don't think Canadians are very excited by the Falls, but Hangs brothers fiance being from the states, its something that people from the US seem to like seeing.

So we toured around a bit, and then took the Maid of the mist tour.

So sad

It looked like ICH has invaded the large tropical tank, and even though I turned up the heat, had done 3 days of ICH medication - we lost a fish. The parrot fish had been infected with ICH and the medication only affects ICH that is hatching, so not the ICH on the fish already. It was just to much for him, and while the other fish were unaffected, he didn't make it.

Its sad because of all the fish, this fish had the most personality by far.

So much to see - so little time

You can have a look at the gallery to see all the pics, but here are some highlights.

Our first stop was Tobermory and its a nice little town. The water is so clear here and there isn't much sand here, its mostly rock. That said its almost like walking into a pool, with the rock bottoms being perfectly flat.

After setting up our tickets for the Chi-Cheemaun, we took the glass bottom boat tour. It was an interesting 2 hr tour. You could see the boats from the glass bottom, and some were large enough that you could see them while hanging out on the deck. Took a movie of the cars leaving the ferry.

After some supper ( white fish ), we got on the ferry.

We got to the island by 10pm, and while onboard we got to watch the sunset. Thanks to the GPS and Mappoint we drove off the boat and caught the Sats and were guided through a maze of backroads to our cottage. Its pitch black up here, and without having a moving map this would have been a lot harder to spot where we'd need to turn. The Vibe has great lights, so visibility was really good, but side roads are still very well hidden until your just about on the turn. We arrived at the cottage and like the Sullivans said, it was unlocked. We brought our stuff in and went to sleep. In the AM we BBQ'd up some chicken, before heading out to have a look at the island.

We did the beach for a while - it was a block from the cottage.

Did some shopping. Wanted to get some gifts to bring back to the family. There are plenty of places on the island to buy home made jams, and all sorts smoked fish.

Saw a few museums. There are many of them, and they are all privately owned setups where people on the island have set up something of interest and make some money through donations for visiting the museum. The old ferry above is actually the home of a family who runs this museum here. When we toured the boat, they were all having a large family dinner.

The last town we visited we saw this person yard, and wanted to take a picture. Next thing we knew we were getting a walking tour of the garden, and spent the evening chatting with the couple that owned the house. They were great people. They come from a family that has lived on the island for multiple generations - farmers. They also owned a B&B for a few years and perhaps this is just one of the reasons they were so friendly and took us in to chat. They gave us some seeds from the garden, and we'd like to return the favour so were going to try to think of something interesting to send them.

The next day we got see Bridal Veil Falls. The water below the falls is nice and warm, and its really clear, but I still wouldn't want to swim in it. To many live animals swimming around in there...some being things that bite.

After we toured around the island some more, and then headed down to where the ferry was. Had some lunch - more grilled whitefish - ate a lot fish that weekend.

Then we relaxed by the water and waited for the ferry to come in.

It would have been pretty peaceful - I bought a book about the island and was relaxing and reading when this bird started peaking at me...perhaps he was hungry.

The ferry is impressively big compared to anything else coming into the harbour.

Once back in Tobermory, we had some dinner before heading home. This time we had some wings - didn't want anymore fish.

I'm so tired

We had a great weekend, but now we are both so tired. I think as a rule we need to plan for a day to relax after a vacation trip.

I took over 400 pictures during the trip. Some of which turned out pretty good. We managed to do a lot of the things we wanted during the trip, and some things we didn't plan on. The weekend was still to short though to do all the things we wanted to do. So we'll likely go back again. Gonna try to get the pics up tomorrow, and the sand out of the vibe.

Car update: Sold the Jetta today. Found the perfect new owner. A aircraft mechanic, who has access to free fuel - so he plans on rebuilding the engine at some point. Going to try to package up some of the places I get parts at so he knows where to save some bucks.

Vibe turned in its best numbers yet on the trip - 5.7L/100kms. Gonna real love this car. Its becoming a great trip car. Great fuel economy, comfortable, and LOTS of room - having some good tunes via the MP3 changers is a nice plus too.