Spring forward - out of my face Chapter one · Tuesday March 31, 2009 by colin newell
I think it is pretty safe to say that if you poll your friends (about the Google Street View concept) they will be split 50-50.
Go ahead try.
Many people are in the “So what, who cares, it is kind of cool” camp. Like, I will be the first to admit that the application has some uses.
Quite a few folks are adverse to having their privacy invaded.
Some folks will say… “If you have nothing to hide then you won’t mind if we take a quick peek up your kilt…”
Which is essentially what Google Street View is working on – as they prepare to deploy on the streets of Canada.
Google street view should know one thing – Canadians are not Americans… and they are not Brits.
Brits are so accustomed to being preyed upon by a impertinent and overly prying government that they ignore that they are observed, on average… 64 times a day.
Not so much in Canada.
Personally, I like the feeling of walking alone – or with my wife… on the streets of Victoria – sometimes on a Friday… or on a day off – and the feeling of being somewhat on the lam. Even if it is my own personal illusion.
And I like to be able to maintain my personal freedom from observance – especially when I am such a well behaved citizen.
So a message to Google Street view… no, a promise:
If I see a Google Street view camera cross my path… and there is a rock or a stick within my reach… I promise you that I am going to aim it squarely at the Google Street view vehicle…
with a curt “Get out of my face Google street view”
Get out. Of my face. Or else.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours?
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and a writer of words – normally friendly when watered and well fed, the Newell can lash out when it encounters foolishness or bad behavior
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Spring coffee style - joy in Italian stove top espresso · Tuesday March 31, 2009 by colin newell
I gave a retired buddy an Aeropress coffee maker. And at 6’ 7” tall, Bob is a whole lot of coffee enthusiasm – not that size matters… but in a funny kind of way, it does with Bob.
Bob used to work in our I.T. division at the University. And when he retired a few years back, he was immediately missed – as much for his skill and his way with people as his childish (or more fairly, youthful) way of seeing potential in the germination of new ideas.
And he treats his coffee the same way.
It came as quite the surprise to me that Bob was a big fan of the coffee website. I am always surprised when someone admits that they dig what I do… I mean, it is only coffee after all.
Anyway – Bob made up his mind one day the Aeropress was going to be the thing for him. Perhaps he could relate to the creator of the Aeropress, Alan Adler – a teacher from Stanford who could see the potential in toys (the Aerobie Disk) and subsequently the Aeropress coffee maker – because of his childlike approach to product development.
Anyway. Bob comes to me one day and says… “Where can I find one of these Aeropress coffee makers to buy?”
Have I got a deal for you Bob!
Not surprising, he was delighted to be comped a freebie. Who wouldn’t be?
Anyway – little did I know that Bob was going to take me on a small journey to toy-land – because Bob practically giggled when he got it. I have honestly not heard that kind of giggle since I was 5 perusing the 1965 T. Eaton Christmas wish book. And anybody that remembers that experience knows what I am taking about.
So. Yea. Sharing the joy.
In the photo above, I did a quick photo shoot to concentrate on taking a chip out of the Bodum project I am working on. Bodum U.S.A. was good enough to send me a crate of their products – dang, a long time ago! And I am finally getting around to the meat and potatoes of the project.
My point? If you look at some of the other photos in this series, you will (maybe just maybe) get some of the joy – that Bob imparted to me – via his newly minted Aeropress crush.
Oh yea. Final note on Bob. Ran into him at a retirement party today. He told me… “I have pushed all of my other coffee makers into the back of the cupboard… It’s Aeropress all the way…” He tittered with glee.
Right. Child like joy over coffee.
That’s what I am talking about.
Canada day attacks on freedom - not so much · Saturday March 28, 2009 by colin newell
In a blog entry from 2 years ago, I wrote about illegal search and seizure during the Canada Day celebrations in Victoria B.C. Canada. I cited sections of our Charter Rights – on how the fuzz have no damn right to fish through your personal space while you are trying to, ironically, celebrate these very freedoms in our great country of Canada.
During the past 4 Canada Day celebrations, Police Officers from the surrounding communities boarded buses, set up road blocks and blocked pedestrian egress to look for open liquor. In setting up checkpoints around the downtown core, they actually restricted free movement of civilians going about their business. I actually had friends talking a bus across town and had their bags searched and their Pinot Noir confiscated. Shame!
My wife and I actually eschewed any plans to do anything on Canada Day – knowing full well that I would resist this police tyranny – and my resistance to this home-grown Nazism likely netting me a night in jail. My regular readers know all too well how I would react to some pinhead in a uniform barking orders at me to look in my ruck-sack.
So. Lucky me. The RCMP Public complaint watch dog is in agreement with me and those other awful bleeding heart liberal types.
The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP released the findings of their investigation yesterday after two members of the public took issue with the way police officers from across the region — in an effort led by Victoria police — searched people on Canada Day.
Officers boarded buses to look for open liquor and set up checkpoints around the downtown core, something they have been doing since 2005.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint in July after a local woman, who was not carrying alcohol, and outraged at being searched three times on her way to the Canada Day celebrations – spoke up. The association said the searches violated people’s Charter rights against unreasonable search or seizure. Well, ya!
The commission agreed, saying that the searches were not authorized under the B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Act, the Transit Act or common law police powers and therefore were unreasonable.
This change will force Victoria police to change their strategy on how they curb the drunken revelry that has come to characterize large events, said spokesman Det. Rick Anthony… so instead of being lazy cops by throwing a net over everyone… might actually considering getting off their asses and doing their jobs… legally.
I say… Bravo!
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Spring forward - Bail out - Chapter 1 · Tuesday March 24, 2009 by colin newell
Thousands upon thousands of American families are destitute – their retirement savings vaporized. Job markets in the U.S. are drying up faster than a California watershed.
And yet executives at numerous bailed out corporations are getting golden buy-outs.
And we are surprised. Why are we surprised? We live in a culture of greed. Where pecuniary success is more important that ethics, decency or honest to goodness moral behavior in a civil society.
Thing is… we do not live in a civil society. We live and die by the free market system. It is what it is. And our Western World revolves around it.
Fat cats get their bonuses because that is what the culture dictates. It is a culture of class. Of societal division. Old folks scraping for their pensions do not count for anything. The middle aged dude who has worked at the mill for 35 years does not count for anything. His pension is washed up like so much flotsam and he might end up living in his car – but the Wall street executive will not go a fortnight without his pound of chocolate.
This is reality. President Obama getting all steamed in front of some committee is not going to change anything. It’s window dressing.
One official for one of the corporations getting the golden tinkle from the U.S. government said… “We have contractual obligations to fulfill these bonus contracts…
we are legally obliged to deliver…”
Legally… Obliged
Which is another way of saying… F*ck you, we are the rich, you are the poor – get over it.
Folks. We are either on the cusp of a social revolution like nothing we have ever seen before…
or we are in for a long sleep.
Pick one. And go for it.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and pop culture maven. His semi-coherent rants will become somewhat more common place now that he has dug himself out from underneath a pile of dung.
