The Squamidian Report – Dec. 17 / 05
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
For starters right off the bat, next weeks addition is on Christmas Eve. Don’t know where the time went, but yes, we do publish on the 24th. No holiday here at Squamidian Central. So, if any of you have a Christmas story of winter story or any story you’d like to pass along to the rest of us, please send it in and I’ll include for us all to enjoy.
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I was finally up at the quarry. That’s where all the blasted rocks for the miles of rock walls come from that line the streets in the Britannia development. The quarry is way up above the development area on a ridge overlooking the village and bay and sound. Incredible view, wish I had brought the camera. We needed a half dozed loads of rock so I was sent up with the big old 892 excavator. It’s like a big slow steel dinosaur. It is a long slow, noisy, bumpy ride when you crawl one of those things up a steep boulder strewn road. The trees up there are pretty amazing as well. Unbelievably tall and straight. Some of the smaller ones might be a foot in diameter at the base and still be a hundred and fifty feet tall, almost no taper at all. The bigger ones simply have to be seen.
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Something I wish we had done when we lived back in Ontario was to put winter tires on our vehicles for winter driving. But no one seems to do that there. They just get by on ‘all season’ tires, which are really just ‘3 season’ tires and end up compromising at that. Out here on the west coast we leaned from friends and neighbours that it is imperative to put on properly rated winter tires. That means the ones with the mountain and snowflake icon stamped into the rubber. They are optimized for cold and snow and ice with soft multi siped tread. There can be times here when the roads are closed to all but proper tires or tires with chains.
When I traded in the van last March and bought my little pickup I was back to just the tires the truck came with. These are ‘all terrain’ tires. Of course that means they do most things OK but do nothing extremely well. So I purchased four new Toyo winter tires for the truck. They were put on one evening when I stopped in at the dealer on my way home from work. The next morning as I drove to Britannia it was all I could do to hold the poor little truck on the road. By the time I got to work I felt like I had worked all day. Turned out one of the tires was faulty and not round. They should have picked that up when installing them but didn’t. Anyway, they diagnosed the problem and ordered in a replacement tire as they didn’t carry that size in stock. The new tire has been installed and now the truck rides like it should. Soft winter snow / ice tires ride like marshmallows or suction cups so you don’t want them on all year. But with our rather hilly terrain here its nice piece of mind to be driving on the best possible rubber for winter conditions.
Of course, as you probably know, driving conditions can vary drastically over quite short distances in this part of the world. With extreme elevation changes and the influence of a large body of water every bend in the road can lead to a new set of conditions. Mostly there is no problem but you always have to be alert for black ice.
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Geek Speak – Some Spam problems that apply to all of us!
Some of you may have noticed problems with receiving this newsletter of late. Others may not have noticed any problems. I’ve been running into a situation more and more lately where a recipient’s Email server has been rejecting the Squamidian as Spam, even going so far as to tag the source address, my Email address, and black list it. This is a result of some rather draconian approaches to Spam control where a blanket solution is applied to any number of conditions. Those conditions my be as simple as there being several addresses in the ‘To’ field or specific words or phrases in the ‘Subject’ line.
The Internet providers and Email hosts that use these bulldozer approaches do so simply because they are cheap and easy to set up and implement. There is no configuring or fine-tuning for their individual customers to do. They cannot customize the filters to meet their own needs and wishes. Ironically, when an Email is rejected as Spam and an error message sent back, there will be an Email address where the sender can send an explanation to. However, that letter gets bounced back because the sender’s address has been black listed. Catch 22. Clean and simple for the Email host but frustrating and useless for everyone else. Basically, it’s a form of censorship.
There is no easy solution that I know of. In some cases the customer can contact their host’s tech department and argue the need to un-blacklist or exempt certain mail. Many simply won’t listen or don’t care. Sometimes a ‘throw-away’ mailbox through free providers like Hotmail etc is the only way around it. Each case is different.
There are other more enlightened providers out there who have configurable filters. With these it is a simple matter of going into you account and doing a little adjustment here and there.
As the Spam battle moves forward it is just going to get harder for all of us to use our Email systems as we see fit, as a communication tool. We’ll just have to work through it one problem at a time.
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By the way, the Whistler web cam I referred to last week is at:
http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/cams/whistler/index.htm
The link I gave you takes you to a stationary camera up on the mountain. Hey, I can’t be right all the time! Actually, I was right at the time but they moved things around on their web sites so there you go.
d
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Hello
everyone!
We’re
getting closer and closer to the big day and I’m sure Santa is well prepared
again this year. I hope you have all sent your letters to him at the North Pole
well before this! I know mine has been in for months now and I have word from
Mrs Clause that all shopping is completed well in advance. As I’ve probably
said before at this time of year, I usually don’t ask for anything specific. I
know that Carole and Adam will always do their best to see that my Christmas is
as happy as can be. Therefore my list simply says “Dear Santa, Please make sure
that this Christmas is a Happy one for everyone on your list and that will make
mine a good one too”! Thanks in advance…. Greg. I must admit however that if I
woke up to find a lump of coal in my stocking and nothing at all under the tree
for me to open, I’d be a tad let down. I guess when it comes right down to it
the kid in me still looks forward to that aspect of Christmas morning.
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Well, we
were supposed to get 25cm of snow over the past 24 hours but it didn’t
materialize. We actually got only about 10cm or so and woke up to brilliant
sunshine this morning. I was happy to see that the roads were bare and the wind
wasn’t blowing much at all. I took the opportunity to get out and do some more
Christmas shopping. I’m just about done now and one more day out and about
should finish things off for this year. Our family is very small on both sides
so we don’t have much company over the holidays. Carole puts a major effort
into making our Christmas dinner a special one every year and I still think she
is the best cook on the planet. My favourite dinner is Turkey with all the
trimmings. It’s not only one of the most beautiful looking table settings one sees
each year but the leftovers are to die for. I especially love the cold turkey
sandwiches that follow for a day or two. Turkeys aren’t cheap to buy but when
you see how far their consumption can be stretched, it a wonder people don’t
eat them more often during the year.
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This
weeks Ontarion is a short one as you can see. I guess once in a while even I
come up short on subject matter.
I’ll let
you go for now but I look forward to talking to you once again next time in The
Ontarion Report.
Have a great weekend everyone… GREG.
PS:
Something To Think About>
If you’re
stuck for something to give a loved one for Christmas, why not pick them up a
“Smoke Detector”? After all, what better gift can you give than one that could
saver the recipient’s life!
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The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.