It works fine. Ya for quick updates.

A nice slice of proof that open source software rocks, and tahapaksu.com in particular. If you’re wanting to add your playlist to your blog and have a last.fm account, give this site a looksee. Plus it looks nicer then my slice of the internet to boot.

Now where’s my mp3 player…

• Get married - Well this one didn’t go through, although not for lack of trying. As we’ve found out, we need either money or work to live in either of the spots that we hail from. And with the US being super stingy with green cards, and PEI’s list of jobs that they have reported shortages of essentially a lie, we’re left with needing that green stuff called money, which as you’ll see is now in short supply.
• Get a house - This is pretty much on hold, at least for the time being. Combination of the real estate market having rumblings of not be too healthy (unless your’e asking a realtor, in which case, everything is great!). It doesn’t that the good ones are still priced for the tourists, before they were mostly delisted when they didn’t sell after the six months or more they were listed. So needless to say, it’s not happening soon, especially since…
• Find a job – When I should have written this, it was more “find a second job”, but the former employers main client blowing their budget like they won the lottery, layoff time came a bit sooner then expected. Best part is that it throws a monkey wrench into everything and grinds it all to a screeching halt. For someone trying to get things done? Ya, not good.
• Get debt free - Some progress was made on this, with the added bonus of getting a cheaper place, cheaper car, bills being chopped left, right and centre. Depending on how long it takes to be re-employed will depend on how much progress will be lost. Optimistic, this 2012 is sounding so far, isn’t it?
• Start investing - So ya, that didn’t happen, so it’s still on the list. Needless to say, its’ a bit down the list priority wise.
• Get my own company going - This had a bit of success, which is a nice change of pace over the rest of the list. It wasn’t much more then some contract work that could pay rent, but it’s a start. On the flip side, the SportBlogNetwork never did gain critical mass; too few writers + not enough cash to do marketing + stiff competition with incumbents = low traffic. We had the quality, just not the numbers.
• Get in shape - Got on this at the end of the year, although the first time I threw out my back, the second, my gym membership had to be cancelled because…I didn’t have the money for it. Amazing how much unemployment can effect things eh?
• Write more often -This turned out to be achieved, of sorts. Doing writing for the SportsBlogNetwork was pretty fun, and I was able to keep writing going on the blog in fits in spurts. However it wasn’t’ constant, which in the blogging world is a big anchor for having folks checking back on your writings. On a plus side I was able to use it for a job application as a sports editor at the local newspaper (and learned that blogging holds little weight.)
• Learn to cook - Ya this is still on the list.
• Keep this blog going continuously for longer then a month - Probably my lone success story of last year really. It’s not consistent, but it’s still going.

So 2012 is looking to be a repeat of 2011, only from further back in the pack, and avoiding being forced to move back to Ontario. No pressure. No pressure at all.

I dont’ know what it is that I like about this tune, whether it’s the uilleann pipes, the haunting vocals, or the Celtic type of feel to the tune, but it works pretty well. Apparently McKennitt has been doing music since 1985, so its only taken a quarter of a century to know of her existence on the Canadian music scene; a freckin miracle for any Canadian band that isn’t Top 40 (for those wondering why the CRTC has Canadian content laws, this is one example). For those interested, this is from the Book of Secrets album, so if you like what you hear, have a look for it on your favourite music retailers site. Might be a PITA to find, but it’s out there.

In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can find a good deal on a trip to the Highlands. For some reason I’ve got the urge to visit.

EDIT: Someone must have a hard-on for nailing posts that post this song online. This is the third time that I’ve had to change the video link.

First the three that will probably not even be looked at by 75% of the populace, with the name of the person running to represent my riding (or district as they’re known here)

no-one (found on election day their rep for this district was Jay Gallant). Honestly when I heard of this lot, I thought it might be at least an interesting choice from the usual four that we get to choose from, but outside of the site looking like they put some effort into, it’s like they lost interest at exactly the wrong time. In fact from the candidates so far, they seem to only be having luck in King’s County, with no reps in Prince Summerside or Charlottetown (to say nothing for here). Having that much of the island non-represented at this stage of the game? fail. Plus is it me or do their bio pictures look like cutouts of Che Guevara?

Well this time I actually have a rep, someone named Allieanna Ballagh. No mug shot…heck no info of any kind other then their name will be on the ballot at the polling station. Maybe they were just selected (what is it with parties not having their s#!t together come election call, it’s not like they can spring it on a whim here), so guess I’ll be checking back in a few days to get more info on why this person deserves my vote. Of the three parties that existed prior to WWII, the greens do get my thumbs up for at least looking semi prepared. They’ve got a decent site (hey I’m a web developer, I look at this stuff for a living), candidates and information are easy to find, and while their representation is mostly urban in nature at least they have reps….and actual photos for most of them. They just seem to have dropped the ball for mine.

The Island party looked like they got going and then got bored, but the NDP party looks like they got caught with their pants down while reading their dad’s hustler magazine. I mean their virtual presence, aka where most folks would be getting their information from (if they bothered to look that is), is absolutely horrible. It’s sparse, looks like an intern did it in an afternoon, and finding information….well I spent ten minutes trying to see who was supposed to be their rep for my district, but outside that District 14 has someone, Charlottetown-lewis Point is having a nomination meeting last week, and they have a candidate in Malpeque, there’s no information as to who you can vote for and at least some information on them. Hell I only found that out by digging into the twitter feeds for most of it. Plus the news on this site is quite out of date, unless they feel that there’s only about ten things to talk about in the last nine months. But at least I know that James Rodd is running the show (indeed he was the only name I saw more then once, outside of jack Layton in the twitter feeds) If the NDP see an increase in votes this year, it wont’ be because information about the party was easy to find.

Another thing that I found annoying is that when I’m looking at potential parties, I want to know what they want to bring to the table, what they stand for, hell what their mandate is should they form the next government. The NDP site….ya it’s another thing they were missing. The Green site at least had a link for policies….that linked to a blank page. The only party of the three that had a page that told you what they’re looking to do? The Island party...aka the only one that I dont’ have a candidate for. Awesome.)which they did…..at the last minute) And this is with someone that spent actual time browsing their sites. The average user will (based on analytic logs that I’ve seen in my travels) spend a minute or less looking for information, so if I couldn’t find it, probably a good chance neither will many others. Just wow….

Now to the incumbents, or aka the folks that bother to advertise….and have decorated every corner of Charlottetown with big signs of smiling happy people.

Well apparently my rep is Larry Hogan, who from his bio page originally hailed from here, went out west (like half of Canada it seems), and then came back when he got married and had kids (which I dont’ blame him at all). First of all, I’m shocked that there’s a bio, heck I think this is the first for any candidate that I can vote for so far. And after skipping the parts about his life history (because really, does that matter outside of “do you have a criminal record?) I’m seeing he’s for taking care of our health issues (plus, although kind of a given), closure of schools (really? This is an issue for an MLA in Cornwall, aka the largest suburb on PEI? Pass.) and our industries (undecided. No mention of what issues those are, and what proposals he specifically plans to propose to boost the industries that would be represented by him if he won this riding.). His facebook page (nice touch), is sadly not as informative….in fact its’ not informative at all, unless you vote for what teams someone roots for. Outside of that he’s the first CFL follower I’ve met here, once owned a mustang and has almost eight times as many friends as I do, I barely know this guy better then I did before. Which is kind of annoying, since a good MLA would negate the negatives of what I feel is probably the worst ran campaign for a PC party I’ve seen since the federal PC implosion in 1993. At least they bothered to have all the information I needed laid out and easy to find. best site of the five, for whatever thats’ worth to them.

So this Ron MacKinley guy…..he seems pretty popular. I mean hell did he make a pact with the devil or something? I’ve seen Senators that have a shorter tenure then this guy has. His bio page isnt’ any more informative as to why this guy seems to be revered by voters as a golden God, outside of mentioning some stimulus plan, which I believe had a large share of it paid by the Feds as part of their plan? Anyone? Heck his wikipedia page is more informative, youd’ think they’d tell folks on the Liberal bio of him that he’s the head of the Minister of Transportation (which does explain the picture of him on a tractor a few months ago…man folks from away loved to rib me on that one). His facebook page is as informative as Hogan’s, with the addition of it looking like a Liberal party RSS feed slapped onto facebook pages. Certainly helps the ole decision process. Their platform doesnt’ help much either, since I’m not under 18 or over 65 (and must they prefix everything with “Liberal Backgrounder”? Seriously I came to your site knowing you are the Liberal party, why sound like a stuck record?) For someone that was already leery of voting Liberal this election, I’m not really seeing any reason why I should, outside of it’s probably a foregone conclusion (to everyone but me I’d wager) that he’ll win this time as well, and that’s an absolutely silly reason to vote for someone, for multiple reasons.

So who will I be voting for come October 3rd? Hmm……can you write your own name on the ballot still? At least I know then that something would actually get done, or at the very least, something productive. I dont’ think I would look as “dashing” riding a tractor through darnaly though…

Corsair Graphite 600T SE – Lots of rave reviews on this case had me considering this one seriously, and having it roomy enough and with improved ventilation works quite well for a box that wont’ be in the most breeziest of places. Plus I hate working on very cramped cases (as my fingers would say if they could talk). Not a fan of the whole “stormtrooper” look to it (yes, revoke my “geek” cred), but couldn’t find an option colour wise that didn’t lose features, so here we are.

Corsair Pro Gold 850 Watt – I’ve heard good reviews about the 80 Gold power supplies, although I wonder if it’s because most of them had affiliate links all over the place. Regardless, the 90% efficiency bit doesn’t’ hurt, especially when you live in the most expensive area on the continent for electricity. And for the amount realtors want for this thing, it “should” be robust that will handle power grids that would make Californians go “damn that’ unreliable”

OCZ 120GB Agility 3 - Let’s face it, SSD’s are the wave of the future. Anyone that has used a system with them has waxed on about their awesomeness, and so this system shall have one. That being said, 128GB really is enough barring a HD price crash, as it covers your OS, and any program that your’e going to run without paying crazy coin. I didn’t really choose any brand over the other; from what I’ve found, all of them have their pluses (performance) and drawbacks (rumblings of reliability), so went with what was on sale. After some advice from fellow computer afficinados, I was recommended to look at at SATA 3 drives, especially Intel and OCZ. Intel was…..insane coin for what size I wanted, but OCZ looks to be in a similar ballpark, so switched to them. Pricing has been updated to reflect this.

With that, let’s see where the best deal can be found.

Case:
RBComputing $180
NCIX $175
TigerDirect $170
NewEgg $180
Amazon $186

Pretty much even across the board. Either Corsair is not providing these in enough quantity to do economics of scale, they’re too new, or cases aren’t where retailers make their money.

Power Supply:
RBComputing $207
NCIX $175
TigerDirect $200
NewEgg $200
Amazon $250

I dont’ know what deal NCIX got on power supplies, but it’s a good one. Beats everyone by at least 12.5% if not more. If all you need is a power supply, NICX seems to be a no brainer.

Hard drive:
RBComputing $200
NCIX $200
TigerDirect $180
NewEgg $200
Amazon $306

SSD’s are a new tech, so it’s not surprising there’s a bit of a variety in prices. Surprisingly, TigerDirect finally offers a best of deal for a product, with regional shop RBComputing comes in second. Amazon….well….ya

Total for base system:
RBComputing $1237
NCIX $1223
TigerDirect $1305
NewEgg $1209
Amazon $1501
Best possible $1139

Well with a base system that will run an OS and do pretty much what a typical compute is supposed to do, we can safely say that Amazon should never be considered for Canadian customers. Well unless you get a staff discount or something, as the current disparity price shows it’s not worth it. Tigerdirect, while at least in the same ballpark as it’s competition, also is a surprise at being the most expensive of the four remainders. Newegg comes in at the lowest, non-surprising, although their shipping costs, and RBComputing flat rate even them out.

So for a base system, it looks to be either of those two options is the way to go…and with RBComputings’ history, I’d probably stick with them for this purchase. So concludes the base part, but additional purchase comparisons I’ll post for when I get some extra money.

Hopefully this was helpful to anyone looking to build a system with a bit of oomph, or for fellow programmers that want a base for a system that would say “how High?” when you say jump.

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro – Haven been a fan of Asus’s motherboard tech for as long as I’ve been building machines, and I’ve never had cause to regret any of my purchases (knock on wood). In fact, the only board failure I’ve ever had was because of a power surge from the less then reliable utility company here, one reason why a good UPS is a life saver (and yes, I now have one).

Memory: Corsair XMS3 16 GB – I’ve never been too choosy with memory, but from my readings about the need for dual and triple pairing that apparently gives performance increases in my research, figure that following techreports recommendations for Corsair’s XMS3 line couldn’t hurt. Went with 16 Gig’s since RAM is stupid cheap right now, the board can take it, and having four gigs on the work system, there’s no such thing as too much RAM.

CPU: Core i7-2600K - Normally I’m an AMD kind of guy, but it seems that they’ve fallen more to the entry/average user’s performance level, while Intel starts to pull ahead once you get beyond that. And since I didn’t feel like dropping silly cash on Opterons, I went with the more versatile choice. And with the 2600k’s ability to easily overclock, I’ve found the perfect choice for those those cold winter nights when I need more power, and a better space heater for my office.

So with the brains and hearts of the operation picked out, who has the best prices? Let’s have a look.

CPU:
RBComputing $314
NCIX n/a
TigerDirect n/a
NewEgg $310
Amazon $305

NCIX and tigerDirect offered bundle deals for their CPU/Motherboard components, so went with those. For the rest, not too much of a variance between the providers.

Motherboard:
RBComputing $212
NCIX n/a
TigerDirect n/a
NewEgg $205
Amazon $262

As with CPU’s, bundle deals obscure the pricing for NCIX and TigerDirect for each component, so skipped those to the next column. For the rest Amazon stands out as just being absolutely horrible. The best part? On their .com site, that same board is 50$ less. Even with the Canadian dollar being higher. Tsk tsk Amazon.

CPU/Motherboard combined:
RBComputing $526
NCIX $552
TigerDirect $630 $520
NewEgg $515
Amazon $567

Think you’e getting a deal with those bundles? Not so fast. Even with Amazon’s “Canadian” pricing, NCIX’s specials barely beat them out, and TigerDirect! Wow. You can tell where they make their money from. Thanks to Clouseau51, (good eye btw) TigerDirect goes from WTF? territory to being near the lead for motherboard/CPU combos. Although now I’m wondering just where the heck I got $630 from…hmm…

Memory:
RBComputing $131
NCIX $121
TigerDirect $120
NewEgg $104
Amazon $154

Some more competition here, with RBComputing and Amazon(again) lagging behind the rest.

Total for core components:
RBComputing $657
NCIX $673
TigerDirect $750
NewEgg $619
Amazon $721
Best possible $619

Not too surprising, newegg is in the lead when it comes to pricing, and has the best possible price so far. What is surprising though is that TigerDirect and Amazon are being beaten out by more local distributors. Especially TigerDirect, whose business is this industry. makes you wonder how many have overpaid over the years.

Up next, finding a home for our hardware to live in.

That is, until now.

With “The Great Move” (aka moving to a cheaper apartment), now at an end, I’m finding that my disposable income has increased by leaps and bounds. And with my plan to pay down my debts over the winter well on pace, I’m going to need something that can handle the load, and wont’ have me needing glasses come April. So it’s time to take the mostly paid down credit card, and for the first time since Apple was only known for iPods and RIm was relevant in the mobile marketplace, it’s time to….

Go Back. To the Desktop!

(nod to Back to the Future there. Did I oversell it? Maybe a little.)

Now if this was the last time (aka 2006), I would have just driven down to RBComputing, the computer shop that I’ve used since I first started building systems in the 20th century and be done with it. However with them being a bit of a drive away, and no local alternatives available (or at least, none that I’ve heard good reviews about), it’s time to hit the internets and compare! After all, having information at your fingertips is the main thing about the internet, right? So here are our contenders that I used to compare prices:

RBComputing - My go-to shop since rockin it in 1999, they’re proof that customer service is the best way to grow a business. Even being 2k kilometres and one time zone away, they’re still on the list. And they offer flat shipping rates, which doesnt’ hurt in the least.

NCIX - A semi-recent edition, was first informed about them form contacts at the last place of employment. Based out of Montreal, they’re well known for having some decent combo deals off and on, and my previous office was pretty much filled to the brim with their products. And since we’re not ordering server products (dont’ ask, horrible memories), they’re on the list.

TigerDirect - Personally I am not a fan of this company, from experiences with them during my all too lengthy time in call centre hell. But with the twitching lessening whenever I hear a phone ring, and multiple friends that know where their computers power button is located at recommending them, they make the list.

Newegg - Another recommendation from my techies that I’ve been leery about, they’re known for having decent pricing, so once again, they’re on the list.

Amazon - As one of the largest online retailers, I wonder if they’re book deals slide over to hardware deals as well. Only one way to find out, in to the comparison box they go.

For those wondering why I’m not ordering from the states, the unholy combo of warranty hell and customs more then negate having my dollar commanding respect at the cash register. Well that and telling their online ordering system that Canada is a country that actually exists.

For the layout, I’ve taken the base setup that was featured two months ago on codinghorror, and modified it to taste. As I’m not gentle with my systems, I figure it would make sense to follow recommendations from those that are of the same ilk (and folks using DB’s in the gigabit sizes would fit nicely).

So with that, let’s go shopping!

Any solutions.

And like the comparisons in 2008 that we were screaming headlong into the first Great Depression since the the jitterbug was popular, we’re also getting a rising voice that was popular then as well. One that wished to kick out the authors of this financial disaster and the economic system that hold so dear, in favour of one a wee bit more worker friendly. Or so the sales pitch goes. Youv’e got three guesses as to which one it was, and the first one don’t count (You folks following Fox News really should get this on the first try.).

I love how the Russian guys are like "This is the last time I come to Marx's place. Every time with that damn lightshade!"

Yes that’s right, one of those two ideologues that were oh so popular in the dirty thirties, has folks wondering if we should give it another kick at the can. And no, this isn’t the communism that has been (among other things), striped, mutated, packaged and rebranded to mean any and all of the things that keep the RepubiTeaPartiers deathly afraid 24/7/365, but actual communism; The State being the all knowing, all seeing, all owning entity of your world. And in the thirties, like today, you can sort of see the appeal; a lot of folks are unemployed, their work is gone, their houses repossessed, you can see how a economic system where they’re the ones at the top of the food chain would being appealing. And in the 1930′s it was, very much so. There were marches, parades, heck it was large enough to have action taken against it in multiple countries (To pop my blogs Godwin”s Law cherry, one of the appeals for the nazis in the thirties was their loathing of communists…and why their other transgressions were sometimes overlooked until WWII).

However this time around, things are a little bit different. While things are bad, they’re not Great Depression bad. There’s no soup kitchens in every town, you dont’ have reports of folks sustaining themselves on one ballpark frank a day, nor do you hear of entire swaths of states being put on the auction block in one day. Add to that the history of communism is a lot more extensive, and we’ve seen that really, it doesn’t work. The USSR lost thirteen of it’s republics after losing a game of financial chicken with the USA in the Cold War. China has found that being the West’s supplier of what seems like everything offers a lot better perks….not to mention cash, then whatever Mao had built. The wave of communist governments that swept Africa in the 70′s have largely faded into history. And while there’s some countries holding on, or in the case of South America, looking to re-embrace, for many it’s become more a dog of a different colour; more socialism then communism. Outside of North Korea and Cuba, there arent’ really any countries that have stuck with Marx’s vision. Not a glowing endorsement considering the plethora of nations that have given it a test drive at time or another in the last century.

So why is it resurfacing? Simple really. The old saying

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

by George Santayana applies quite well here. The generation that lived through the last economists nightmare have largely past on, and those that followed began to forget or ignore the dangers of what a completely laissez-faire policy can cause, especially in economic matters. It didnt’ worked in 1841 in Ireland, it didn’t work in 1929 in the United States, and it didn’t work again when the reins were loosen in the 2000′s. And since we didn’t learn from our predecessors’ mistakes, here we are. While most of the calls for going to the other extreme are mainly outside of North America, it is a bit odd that the places you see folks talking about it, hail from areas that have felt its kiss first-hand. Possibly Stockholm syndrome perhaps?

When extreme views become the norm, it's the average person that suffers. Thankfully, workhouses aren't coming back any time soon...for now.

And thus we’re down to the crux of what this writeup is all about, while we should be looking for solutions, and there are many being suggested from the sensible to the bizarre, going to extremes isn’t the way to go. If we had bothered to stay awake during history class as they quickly skipped through the 1930′s to rush to WWII, we would have seen that it was going to extremes that was a large driver of how the 1940′s would play out; Germany(facism), the USSR(communism), Japan(militarism) and the US(isolationism), all four nations would adopt extreme economic/political positions that had little room for maneuverability and flexibility. Most of us remember what the result of that was. While there are some rumblings of semi-extreme, inflexible positions (see the fracas that the US enjoyed over the last month and change), there’s currently nothing that looks even comparable to the storm clouds that were forming over seventy years ago.

As the parahparsed title of this article alludes too, capitalism has many flaws; you’d have to be a fool or a zealot to not acknowledge that. In it’s rawest, most concentrated form it can be especially brutal to all but those near the top of the financial mountain, as we’ve found out a multitude of times over the centuries. However, if it has a bridle placed upon it, and we hold it from breaking away like a panicked stallion with restrictions to where it can go and what it can control with no rearing back on the reins, it actually works, and works quite well. At least in comparison to its competition throughout history. Regulation, if properly managed and maintained, can actually be useful, if not necessary to combat the extremes that creep into all economic systems, thanks to that wonderful blessing and curse we all possess called human nature.

Want an good example? How about Canada? It hasnt’ escaped the recession completely (what nation has really), but with restrictions for banks that until just before the recession began prevented a repeat of the rash of bad debts that the united states is still suffering from. Things aren’t perfect of course. SouthWestern Ontario is a milder version of Michigan, Newfoundland and PEI suffer from chronic double digit unemployment, and debt ratios for a large amount of the populace are at troubling levels, but there’s no rumours of Canada defaulting on their debt anytime soon. Indeed, if the debt isnt’ being paid down at a decent clip over the next few years, I’d wager the current government will find itself back to a minority status, if not out altogether. Us Canadians, we’ve become quite the penny pinchers over the last two decades. Amazing what a credit rating downgrade can do to motivate some folks.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to hit the hay. Have to be rested to effectively participate in that best of the worst of economic forms.

Fast forward to today, I’ve decided to keep my writings that I laboured on for hours (and in some cases days) for posterity. For some they might be of interest, and who knows, if I can ever get a steady stream of dedicated writers, might jsut relaunch the whole thing. Still have the domain after all.

So if your’e looking for random ramblings of a sporting nature, just look up all stories in the sports category. You’ll find what I was working on for the last year. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, there’s one issue that seems to crop up every time when it comes to theme selections, and that is their absolute aversion to displaying HD video within the allotted theme space. A great example is my Game of Thrones entry, which I had to modify the size to squeeze into the allotted space for this new theme. Considering my love for HD, having videos squeezed into almost smartphone sized boxes kind of removes the whole point of it all.

Normally I’d fix it myself, after all, I’m in the industry. However I’ve found that my front end skills are like comparing a house painters skills with the brush to Michelangelo; my work will look decent, but when you demand gorgeous (as I seem too), it’s better just to get someone that can deliver that. Maybe for creedscorner V3. Until then for you designers out there, designing a fluid sized three column theme that can display articles that have HD sized embedded video would be in demand, at least from this blogger.