Category: Mikes Editorial

By Mike Pfaiffer My topic for thought this time is something in Canada which has even made its way to some American media. Our ISPs have been given permission to implement Usage Based Billing (UBB). The way our ISPs currently bill their customers is based on speed. In Winnipeg the two major ISPs are Shaw (cable) and MTS (DSL). Through out Canada we have three more large ISPs. All charge based on speed. Certain ISPs like MTS have set things…

This issue I’d like to whine and complain about proprietary versus open standards. In the past I’ve generally come out against proprietary software and standards. I will do so again today. The motivation behind my current rant is the admittedly cheap MP3 player I bought last month. It is a 2 GB Sylvania SMPK2083 made in China by Curtis International. My primary purpose was to use it as a voice recorder for my notes. It does so remarkably well. The…

Man oh man what a time. You know how things come and go in cycles… This is one of those times. Lots of little things piled up… My cousin was appointed as ambassador for Le Festival du Voyageur (a major local mid-winter party in French similar to Mardi Gras). Congratulations Roger! I may have mentioned this one earlier. My new quad-core PC had a hard drive failure. It’s a good thing I backed up everything before it stopped functioning. I…