Stop the e-bike madness

This summer Toronto was introduced to the e-bike. These are essentially electric mopeds, no gas.  Top speed is about 25 clicks on flat pavement (up hill is about .5 or less). No license is required, and apparently neither are brains or common sense.

I generally find e-bike owners are pretty stupid people. They don't know first off that these contraptions are useless or dangerous. More importantly they also don't know the rules of the road. Chances are if they were originally cyclists (or even motorists) they would know the rules, but I doubt any cyclist would actually convert to an e-bike so I can only deduce that these riders know absolutely nothing other than

This summer I've seen a couple of pedestrians almost run over by these bikes while crossing the road. I've also seen a fair share of e-bikers almost bite the dust trying to thread the needle along the Lakeshore or overtake a dump truck during rush hour traffic.  Some even take the pedals off trying to make it look like a Scooter, only to find it transforms into a two wheel shopping cart after the batteries die.

Anyways, today I saw the mother of all e-bike morons.  One obese guy motoring down Coxwell Ave. with a similarly fat woman passenger. Suspension totally bottomed out. Handle bars are saddled with "enviro" shopping bags. Cruising down the avenue thinking they are the coolest "green" cats on the block. "Hey stupid", it's illegal to carry passengers on an e-bike. Just because two fat asses can fit on doesn't mean it's right or safe.

Check your bill

Although Roger Cable seems to be more customer focused than Bell, they certainly need some improvement with their billing system.  I checked my first months bill since signing on to Rogers High-speed Internet. I was disappointed to see that I did not get the promotional 1 year price of $39.95, nor did I get a one time $30 credit, and I was also charged $9.95 for a modem in-store pickup.

At least Rogers admitted the error and reversed all the charges, but unfortunately this was not the first time this has happened. I have a sneaking suspicion that they know of these errors and count on people not to catch it.

The moral of this story is to always check your bill.

See Ya Bell

Today I cancelled our Sympatico High Speed service. It felt good, actually. We've subscribed to this spotty DSL service for a over 7 years and although it has served it's purpose, it was neither spectacular nor all that reliable.

Bell tried to convince me to suspend our account for 6 months,  so I could find someone to take over the service. What's in it for me? Their argument is that our service is uncapped (unlimited traffic) and that plan is no longer offered. Nice try, would have worked if I believe them or even cared.

Bell continues to piss off (or maybe 'on' ) their customers like they still have the monopoly on telecommunications. My prediction is Bell will be sold off in pieces to it's competitors until the Teachers Pension led consortium makes a profit and re-floats it onto the unsuspecting public as a new company,  same old crap but less to offer. Bell ExpressView will be sold to Rogers, and it's Bell Wireless unit sold to Telus. Back in the mid-90's Bell had a campaign called the "New Bell', they are trying it again but it's too little and too late. 

No one really likes the cable or phone company but I choose the lesser of two evils and right now that happens to be Rogers.

Shopping for a mattress

In all my life I've never purchased a mattress before. That's pretty strange if I think about it because I've purchased a home, a number of cars, sofa, appliances etc.  but never needed to buy a mattress because there's always been one around, somewhere. 

The whole mattress buying  experience is really confusing and I believe it's meant to be that way.  First there is Pocket Coil or Inner Coil or Foam? Even Air! (Sleep Number beds).  I like the feel of foam but I'm not convinced it's a great long term choice, besides how does one justify $3000 for a large piece of Sweedish foam. Next there is Tight Top, Pillow Top or Euro Top? # if coils per mattress. How about silk, wool or Elastvisco?

There are also different luxury levels within each make and the names are intentionally confusing. For example, the Vivaldi vs. the Gershwin. The Belmont vs. Conrad vs... you get the idea. What I also uncovered is that no reseller sells the same model by name, even though the mattresses are 100% identical. This is by design to prevent consumers from taking advantage of price matches since the models will never be named identically between competitors. I'm also convinced they model their marketing after the automobile industry. Did you know the high-end Sterns and Foster is really a Serta, kind of like what Lexus is to Toyota.  

 

Here is some trivia, did you know ost mattress manufacturers have been around since the US civil war? This is one industry that does not assemble in China. It's all made domestically, even in Canadian plants.

The pricing model is a bit of a joke. The Bay or Sears will list a mattress for $5800 and offer 55% discount while Sleep Country will list the mattress for $3300. When was the last time you opened a flyer and didn't see a mattress sale.

After 3 weeks of Googling, reading and shopping we ended up buying a Simmons mattress from Sleep Country but a upgraded to a King size. The mix and match sale almost saved us $1000, and no we don't care that the fabric on the boxes don't match the mattress. The salesman was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He even refunded us $30 for a parking ticket we incurred outside the store while shopping there. Nice.

Well now I've bought a mattress what's left?

Internet Speed Update

So in my ongoing quest to better my highspeed internet I've bought a new wireless router, Linksys RangePlus  WRT110.  My old router I bought 3 years ago was acting really funny and was having big problems maintaining a connecting to the cable modem.

With the new WRT110 I have 100% radio reception and check out the download speed!  Only trick is that I had to change the Radio Band on the router from the default 20Mhz to 20/40Mhz.

Stopping on a dime and giving 9 cents change

On of my tasks during my vacation was to service the rear brakes on our Honda CR-V. The discs were rusted and there was nothing left of the pads.

I knew Honda would charge about $600+ tax on the job, and since I know how to service brakes,  I'm financially better off doing it myself. It's a messy job though.

A couple of things to note. Canadian Tire didn't stock the rear disks at any of their locations, but to order them would be about $109 each (I need 2). They also do not stock the brake pads. Firstly, $109 is outrageous of standard discs especially given they are made in China (A few years ago I bought a pair of high performance cross-drilled cadmium plated rotors for my Camaro for about $200).  Secondly, I can only assume that Crappy Tire does not service too may imports because I had the same problem getting parts for another import I had a few years back.  The CR-V is a pretty popular model. Don't even get me started on the pimply faced teenagers behind the parts counter who know dick about automotive parts. CT should continue to focus on selling Chistmas lights and Swiffer mops and leave automotive parts to those who are serious about it.

NAPA Autoparts pulled through for me, they had them for $35 each and the premium metallic pads for $53 for the set, and they were in stock. Everything fit perfectly, sometimes non OEM parts don't fit well but these were a 100% fit. NAPA is staffed by pot belly old farts but they know what they are talking about.

While inspecting the calipers I noticed one of the caliper pin boots was torn. This needed to be replaced otherwise the caliper will eventually seize up, but I had a very very hard time finding the kits at Honda. All the kit is is a bunch of rubber seals, but no one had it in stock.  Again I'm wondering how the Honda dealers can properly service brakes in a timely manner of a regular service item like seals are not readily available. They said they can order then but at a cost of $39 each (enough for 1 caliper). On the internet, US Honda dealers are selling them for $11.00. I'll be placing an order tonight (in the meantime the car should be okay with the torn boot).

I have not worked on cars for a while but this adventure jarred my memory, I used to think how much the average person gets fleeced by having the dealer service their car. My estimate puts a $600 brake job at 200% profit.

So in the end I got really dirty and accidentally bashed a finger. I saved about $400 but more importantly the car has it's full braking potential restored.

BTW I saved the labour costs because I had a little help, see photo above.

Cable Modem Update

I did a test to determine if my wireless router was causing a bottleneck on both the DSL and Cable Modem connections.  This is what I found.

When connected to via WiFi (i.e. wireless) the cable modem connection topped out at 3200 Kbps, or ~ 3 Mbps.  The DSL connection was half that.

When connected directly using an ethernet cable to the router, I was able to achieve 6856 Kbps ( ~6.6Mbps) which is dead on the advertised max by Rogers.  Sympatico, I was only able to achieve 3500 Kpbs.

So that proves that my wireless router is the bottleneck, and Sympatico DSL is still slower and not even close the to advertised rate of 7Mbps.  My wireless router is pretty old and only supports the 'b' standard so I'm sure if I upgrade to at least a 'g' spec. I will be getting max throughput.

Marissa's complaint is that if I cancel the Sympatico service she'll loose her email and address which she has been using for a long time. I'm sure we'll figure something out. I gave up on using and ISP address long time ago for that reason. 

CNE 2008

We marked the end of the summer season by visiting the 2008 Canadian National Exhibition. It's a annual tradition for us.  Some people say it's boring and not much as changed but it's still a great place to visit, and there's always something new when experienced through the eyes of children.

One thing that was genuinely unique to me was the Mardi Gras type parade. It wasn't the famous Disney parades but I liked the bead throwing. One Canadian Armed Forces reserve gave Tyler and Aidan each a football.  Aidan says "A soldier gave it to me".

The Air Show was a bit of a disappointment. Only two jets appeared, CF-18 Hornet and the F-16  Falcon (Viper). There was also one bomber and fire rescue chopper. The rest were generally  bi-planes and classic props.  I'm more of a modern jet type so I was expecting more bravado.  I remember when I used to see the Concorde, Voodoo, B1 Stealth.  An F22 Raptor would have been nice to see but I'm sure that cost is a big factor these days.

Here are some more photos:

Rogers High Speed Internet service

I picked up my cable modem installation package this afternoon. It only took about 10 minutes to install.  Most of the time was spent under a desk trying to find a free power outlet.  Anyways, it was pretty simple and my speed appears to be about 2x faster than the Sympatico DSL highspeed service. Upload speed is about the same.  It's still not 7MB/s but I'm happy for now.

Page refreshes are noticeably faster, and downloads of binaries are what I would expect for $50 per month. I updated several Mac OS patches I was holding off on due to the crappy DSL speed.

I plan to wait a week before canceling with Bell.

Poor Sympatico DSL service

I've been a long time Bell Sympatico DSL (Highspeed Internet) customer. As of late I'm pretty muchup to my wits end with this bad service.  

First of all, it always cuts out during a rain, and especially lightning storm. This summer in Toronto it's been especially bad because of the wet weather we've been having. Recently, it's been spotty even without wet weather. The Bell "helpless" desk hasn't been any help, other than trying to get to to move my modem around the house, but I wasn't going to play that game.

Secondly, it gets progressive slower. Ultimately I have to reboot the modem because it becomes totally unusable.

Lastly, I don't believe I'm getting the service I am paying my hard earned dollars with. The "Express" service I have is supposed to give me up to 7Mbs (megabits per second) download. On all DSL tests I can only get up to 2Mbs. Bell had told me before that it's because of the neighbourhood I live in but that's not my problem, is it?

Anyways, my monthly DSL service is $50.51 (includes modem rental and taxes). Rogers is offering the same 7Mbs service for $39.95 / month (for 12 months). After 12 months it's the same as Bell but at least I get a 10% discount on my entire Rogers bill. I have cell and cable TV so it's a pretty significant savings.  In addition , they are offering $30 one time online discount. Seems pretty worth it to me.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like Rogers either. Both companies are gougers but I have to choose one.

So long Bell, nice knowing you. Maybe you can pick up some new customers in Bangalore :-)

I'll let you know how the new service compares.

Aquarium Update

It's day 3 for the new fish and everything is looking good. The two Zebra Danios are hungry and swimming fast, so it looks like the water conditions are less toxic compared to last week.

We also bought a bottle of "bacteria", see photo.  It's not as gross as it sounds, but essentially its a bottle of good bacteria to jump start the biological filtration process.   The green color you see in the photo means the tank water is 2ppm of ammonia. Ideally ammonia should be zero. 

Today I did a test and its looking more yellow thank green, so that's a good sign.

Aidan's Fish Aquarium

Uncle Warner bought Aidan a 5 gallon aquarium for his 3rd birthday. He was also kind enough to include $30 as a fish fund. $30 was more than enough for the fish but didn't cover all the other things required for a nice aquarium, e.g. gravel, fake plants, heater and of course a sunken pirate ship.

So we set it up and added 7 small fish. The were doing quite well until the next day, then they all died. Having owned and tended to a much larger aquarium as a child I knew that the water needed to be conditioned before fish could live confortably. However I didn't expect all the fish to die so soon.

Warren tells me that sacrificial fish are needed to cycle the aquarium to establish the proper water conditions and "good" bacteria. I've confirmed that on many internet sites as well. The science behind it is very fascinating: ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and PH. I also bought a tester kit to test and monitor those levels. I guess we just have to be patient and make several more trips to the pet store before we have a thriving aquarium to be proud of.

Perception of American cars

While on vacation in Florida I rented a car.  I was expecting somewhat sporty Pontiac G6 but was dismayed when Budget told me  they ran out but could either give me a PT Cruiser or the Chevy HHR. What I ended up with is the HHR.

This has got to be the ugliest, most embarrassing, shitty handling car I've ever driven. It's a cross between a gangster-mobile and a hearse.

Towards the end of our vacation I got used to the embarrassment partly because I saw other people driving one (most likely renters as well). Despite it's seemingly large appearance from the exterior it barely bit our two suitcases and a stroller. The dash feels like it's made by Fisher Price and the window controls are strangely placed on the dash. Wiper controls are located on both the stock and the dash. Everything seems like and afterthought.

There's no need to wonder why Japanese cars outsell Domestics.

Grilling Season

It's time to buy a new grill for the deck. 

I believe it's time for a old fashioned charcoal grill. Based on cost, taste, fun, and portability I believe charcoal grills are superior to the made plethora of propane BBQs that have flooded the market over the past few years. I also can't stand driving to the gas station to fill up the propane tank.

Gas grills are so cheaply made (made in China) that they are probably meant to be disposable.  Despite covering the BBQ, each year either the cooking grate, vaporizer or venturi rusts out. The cost to replace is upwards of $40 each so the math is simple.  

Here's the math ... A classic 10 year warranty Weber classic charcoal kettle grill costs about $130, a propane grill of acceptable quality will cost between $300-$500.  Charcoal is cheaper per meal than propane. There are no parts to replace on a kettle grill. Easy Peasy.

The cons of charcoal, are: More fuss to start and clean up and the perception that charred food causes cancer. The fussiness can be overcome with experience and I have yet to hear of anyone e dying of BBQ cancer. 

And it comes in blue!

Ooops

I'm installing recessed (can) lighting in the basement.  I thought the hardest part was to figure out how far apart  to place them to create even light coverage. 

Using a electronic stud finder I located the floor joists so that I wouldn'tt be cutting a hole smack dab under a joist. As you can see from the photo that's exactly what happened. Apparently the stud finder is fooled when two woods of different densities are beside each other; the previous home owner doubled-up the original joists using 2x6 pine, the original joist was some other species.

I chose another location and made another hole. I guess I'll have to patch up the other one :-(

Uncanny

WiFi Problem Resolved

I never realized how convenient wireless was until my laptop's wireless connection broke last week.  Unfortunately my work schedule requires a lot of after hours work which I try to do in between cooking, laundry, time with my son etc. I may even need to connect on the road. Anyways , my trusty IBM Thinkpad T60 suddenly dropped it's connection in the middle of working and never returned. 

Weird thing is that it could see all the SSID's out there and establish a link but after the password, nothing worked. It just said "Not Connected", but sometimes it would flip over to "Connected" but no IP address was ever assigned so it was no use to me.

I tried the following without luck :

1. Change BIOS setting
   
2. Fn-F5 key (hot key toggle for WiFi)
   
3. Flipping WiFi hardware switch (located practically under the laptop, in fact I didn't even know it existed until my buddy Sarwar told me about it)
   
4. Reloading all versions of drivers from 2005-2008
5. Uninstalled device and drivers at least 20 times
6. Selected Network Repair option*
7. Buying a PCMCIA WiFi card (Any one need one?)
8. Installing third party Wireless management software (including one made by Atheros Communications. IBM does not make it's own WiFi btw)

I must have read at least 100 postings about similar issues and nothing recommended worked for me. So giving up,  I put an order in for a new T61 laptop since I can't waste any more time playing with this Windows garbage.

Tonight something worked for me though. What I noticed is that if I did 'ipconfig.exe' to display the network adapter settings , nothing appeared for the WiFi device. I knew something was wrong with Windows' ability to see the device. I removed all protocols except TCP/IP and selected Repair network. After doing that, ipconfig showed the wifi network interface and I was back in business.

Hopefully some poor soul with the same problem finds this blog helpful.

What a total waste of time. Thanks Microsoft.

Little Man makes me proud

Last weekend we visited Vaughn Mills. The highlight of the day was the Nascar Speed Park. Although Aidan is still too small to ride go-karts there were lots of games and things to do. 

I remember last Christmas he was too timid to climb on the raised playground at W

oodbine Center. This weekend he just went for it. He climbed 20ft to the top (safety nets everywhere) and ran around with 

other kids. The one thing he stayed away from was the spiral tube slide. That was my fault because when he was a about a year and a half I placed him down pretty steep spiral slide at the Bronx Zoo. I suspect he tumbled head first in the the slide and he wasn't a happy camper when he got to the bottom. Since then he's been pretty cold towards any type of slide.  I know he's not scared of too many things, in fact this weekend he diving head first in the the pool.

After about an hour and with Mommy at the top encouraging him to go (an probably seeing other kids go down as well) he did us proud and slid down. Not once, but many more times :-) Makes me really proud of my little guy.

 

Won big at Timmy's

I finally cashed in on Roll Up the Rim.  No I did win the car or the boat but I did win $50 credit on a Tim card. That's about a months worth of coffee :-)

Unfortunately to claim my prize I have to fill out and mail-in a long legal-ese form :-(

My Wii

It's not what you think.

Ever since Christmas I've been trying to buy a Nintendo Wii. The worldwide shortage whether geniune or engineered by Nintendo has made it virtually impossible to find one. I was almost tempted to go for a Playstation 3.

Today I happened to be crusing the Costco.ca website when what do you know? A Wii bundle was offered (extra controller and games). I quickly placed and order and I should be getting it delivered ($0 shipping) by next week :)

Now I'm wondering if I should sell it on ebay for $500. Nah, I'm going to open it and set it up and blow off some steam after work. I think Marissa will like it because it comes with boxing so she can vent her frustrations on me, the virtual me.

This one good thing offset all the pounds of bad crap thrown at me at work today :-)