United Pigeons Toronto Confluence
2008 Session, Union Station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“Mr. Secretary, scouts have reported of intruders from south of the border. Unconfirmed reports also point to a certain Hamiltonian attempting to show them a good time.”
“Do you have a strategy ?”
“Yes Sir. We will target the Hamiltonian first by pooping into his lunch …”
Recuperating an old Laptop - Part 2
Installing Debian and resolving some issues on an i1300
In Part 1, I introduced you to my Thinkpad and some challenges I’ve had adopting Linux and FreeBSD. There I also discussed how its aging hardware prevented me from installing newer versions of Linux let alone, boot the installer from a CD.
But that problem faded into the background when I was pointed to an article about installing Linux without burning a CD. It opened up opportunities to test out all the Linux distributions I wanted to try, and satisfy myself that it wasn’t only the hardware that had problems but the drivers that came with those distributions.
There are many reasons I chose Debian but here are my top five:
- I was recommended by my friend, Firas of My Dominant Hemisphere to try Debian for its stability and support for old hardware.
- Installation over the Internet - CDs can be unreliable and their .iso files are not always updated until the new version arrives. In most cases Internet installation fetches the latest packages and security updates. Most major distributions facilitate installing over the Internet.
- I was unable to get the installer launch for SUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu and several other distributions. The Debian installer simply worked.
- The Debian Project pioneered in taking guesswork out of installing new software and upgrading. APT and its graphical front end Synaptic are considered Debian’s best features.
This is the very fist time I’ve used Debian. I had on purpose avoided it because of serious criticisms on Wikipedia a few years ago. Those criticisms have since been removed.
Recuperating an old Laptop - Part 1
The Medical History
I bought my Thinkpad in 2001. It’s an i series 1300 and it came with modest configuration: 750 MHz Pentium iii processor, 128 MB RAM of which 8 MB is shared with video and a 20GB hard drive. Over the years, it’s helped me get my work done, provided entertainment, I played a lot of games on it, watched a lot of movies and pushed its limits by running resource intensive games and programs (like Flight Simulator and Pro/Engineer). I could go on talking about it and never stop. But now that the hardware is beginning to perform less than optimum and that and I am in no position to by a new computer, it was time to give it much needed new life.
For most of its lifetime, it has run Windows XP and it performed quite solidly. But being the memory hog XP was and the fact that most windows programmers design their programs to run on the fastest processors of the day, my Thinkpad was becoming more obsolete with time and it only added to my frustrations.
Thus speaketh I
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iPhone mania ! Really ?
This morning’s news were all over the launching of the iPhone today for the first time in Canada. Representatives from Rogers Communications, who is the official carrier of the iPhone in Canada, were grilled over the prices, while the buyers were asked if it was really necessary.
Apple thretened Rogers by pulling the iPhone last week for ripping off customers by offerring only one plan which was outrageous and overpriced: 60$ a month for 3 years, 150 minutes and only 400 MB of data. Under pressure from consumers and Apple. Rogers announced other plans as listed on their website.
It was reported by AppleInsider that Apple had already diverted shipments bound for Canada to Europe creating a shortage. Thus participating Rogers stores are officially stocked with only 20 iPhones and limiting two per customer.
LIUNA changes mind agreeing to Lister Block Deal
Just last week, the City of Hamilton proposed a deal that LIUNA build a second phase next to Lister Block, if the city bought and restored the building. The proposed phase will bring $600 000 to the city in tax dollars.
LIUNA rejected the deal outright describing it unacceptable and declared that their business with the city was as good as dead.
However, last night, LIUNA turned in a signed deal over to city officials - just hours before the promised $7 million funding by the Province of Ontario expiring.
Under this deal, LIUNA will also restore Lister Block before the city moves into the building by 2012 and buy it for $25 million.
It was clear that nobody wanted to loose the $7 million grant. For more information, check out a draft of this story on CHCH news .
I think this is a good time to take a break from stories about Lister Block for a "few months". Obviously I am getting very excited with any new developments and it’s holding me back from other things I need to do !
Also, Happy Canada Day fellow Canucks. Hope you have a great day. I’ll be unfolding a chair in my balcony in the evening to watch the fireworks.
Tarheel Ramblings calendar finally arrives !
Lee of Tarheel Ramblings held a contest last month in which I was the first to come up with the correct answer. The prize was a copy of a Tarheel Ramblings Picture Calendar.
Before I go on, I have a confession to make. I put off buying a calendar because I thought it would be the traditional January 2008 to December 2008 calendar no matter in which month it was purchased. I thought I’d instead buy one in November this year to get a 2009 calendar. Boy was I wrong as you will see.
The package actually arrived on Thursday. But since no one was home that afternoon, I had to pick it up this morning at the post office.
City council kills Lister Block deal
This morning, CHCH news reported that The Hamilton City Council met Wednesday night with LIUNA, the current owners of the historic Lister Block for a round of talks to buy the building. This time city proposed that LIUNA would agree to build a second phase next to the building, if the city bought restored Lister Block.
The proposed second phase would hold a senior’s residence and several retail shops. It is estimated to bring $600 000 a year in tax dollars back to the city.
قصيدة مليباري
Today’s post is in Arabic. Let me correct that - broken Arabic. It’s a poetry (I found in my e-mail inbox last week), that is a narration by a Keralite (a person from the state of Kerala in south India), who recounts his miserable life in Saudi Arabia. It’s hilarious as it captures the flavour of Hejazi Arabic but in a broken and accented form. The story actually is sad and very true.
Keralites form a majority among the population of foreigners especially in western Saudi Arabia and have become a stereotype among the South Asian population. They are commonly referred to as Malabari in the Gulf because the majority of Keralite Muslims there come from the Malabar region . Their language, accent and to some extent their gullibility, make them irresistible for the rest of the expatriates to poke fun at them.
The Mosaic Picture Meme
I saw this meme in Kathy’s Junk Drawer and this is the coolest meme I’ve come across thus far. This meme was originally created by Bud, who changed the rules slightly.
Football Fever 2008 !
Being a life long football fan (that’s soccer to you NFL/CFL fans), I get this fever during every World Cup, the Euro Cup and to a lesser extent during the Asian Cup and Copa América.
Euro Cup 2008 kicked off today and the first game was played between Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The Czechs won the game by scoring 1 goal in the 68th minute. The Swiss did have a couple of chances of making a tie, but their confidence was largely shaken after the Czech score.
Within the next hour another game will begin between Portugal and Turkey, which will be played in Geneva. I’ve been posting live game highlights and scores on my Twitter.
I don’t have a favourite team among the Europeans because it’s very hard to predict. But their football is always very entertaining.
Since I don’t have Cable TV, I’ll be watching the games on OMNI-TV, where commentary is mostly in Italian and a few games will be broadcast in Portuguese, Polish and Greek. If you live in Ontario, you can follow the schedule on the OMNI-TV Website.
Lister Block
There are buildings that you admire for their beauty and their height like the Empire State building. Then there are buildings that have stood the test of time like the Great Pyramids. But there is yet another category or buildings that have their own story to tell: of construction and survival and destruction. As I write, the White House is coming to my mind but I am actually talking about a building with no significant impact on world history, and that most people outside this city of Hamilton don’t even know it exists.
The Lister Block is an eighty four year old, six-storey building that sits on the corner of James St. and King William in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. If you walk by this building, chances are that you will not even notice it and ignore it because it’s windows are boarded-up and there’s graffiti all over. The most you will want to care about is that it is abandoned and is falling apart and that you want to walk faster ! To Hamiltonians however, Lister Block is part of their history and the building’s history holds a sentimental and nostalgic value to them.
Conquering the Escarpment
It was a heartbreakingly beautiful day today, 20°C with a cool breeze and sunny with a few clouds in the sky. Since I wasted the day yesterday staying indoors, away from the rain, I was not going to waste today, and decided to go hiking and exploring the Niagara Escarpment.
Hamilton is known Canada-wide for it’s steel industry and the pollution that comes with it; but that was all in the past. Today, the steel industry is only part of it’s economy, along with health care, education and a growing biotechnology industry. Hamilton has many best kept secrets like and its natural beauty and biodiversity is one of them.
The Niagara Escarpment is the very cliff over which the Niagara river plunges to form the Niagara Falls and it runs through south-western Ontario following the Georgian Bay shore, into Michigan and finishes in Illinois near Chicago. In 1990, it was designated as a UNESCO world biosphere reserve, which means all non-conservation activities along and near the escarpment are prohibited.
Playing hookey
I took a holiday the last week and a half, visiting my friends in Toronto and Mississauga but I guess that holiday also extended to blogging and reading and commenting on your blogs as well !
It was a great to know how the guys are moving on after finishing school. A couple of them are also getting married this summer and there is a possibility of a third wedding but we have yet to find that out.
Usually when the guys gather, we plan a road trip but this year, we had to scrap that plan due to gas prices that are now soaring at $1.25 a liter ($4.73 a gallon). I got around using transit, which thankfully is still affordable and let me point out to car lovers that even if fares for GO Transit have gone up, it’s still the most comfortable way to get around the Greater Toronto Area.
I have to be frank with you that I did have Internet access wherever I visited but it just didn’t feel right updating my blog and reading and commenting on your blogs by taking up their computing time. For me, checking my e-mail and responding only takes under five minutes but my other daily tasks also include twittering, catching up with the news, and reading and commenting on several blogs.
Besides I was tired of explaining every friend of a friend what Netvibes was, who the boyscout in that picture…
I have a couple of posts almost ready to go. Tomorrow many bloggers are campaining for human rights but I wont be participating and instead will write about it later in the year.
Now, it’s time for a lot of catching-up to do…
Of split personality and irresponsibility
Today was Friday and Friday or Jumu’ah, as it is called in Arabic, is a day of congregation for Muslims. The congregation is an obligation upon the men, and there can be no excuse for missing it unless due to sickness, in a situation of emergency, while traveling long distances, or in situations when it’s just impossible.
Women are also encouraged to join the congregation but they are free to pray in private if they choose to.
The Friday congregation replaces the daily afternoon prayer, which is held between 12:30 and and 14:00 depending on the season and if DST is observed, and lasts between half-hour and 45 minutes. There are two parts to the congregation, the sermon and the prayer itself which takes between 5 to 7 minutes maximum.
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