Montréal Nuit Blanche...

It seems that I won't make it to that event. The other year, I had an awful bad cold, and this year, I'm on call.

What is Nuit Blanche? It's a cultural event. Many shows to see, all night long.
There are also fun activities to do throughout the night. The highlight of that event is a night at an outdoor swimming pool. Heated pool, I should mention... but still surrounded with snow for some added effects... and observing (I hope) a starlit sky.

Sigh. :)

Web site: Nuit blanche.

Cheers,

-E

OLPC user group in Ottawa!

The little XO laptop is getting some momentum in the nation's capital.

I'm passing along the official announcement from Clevergirl.

Sigh... I'm on duty for this week and next week, otherwise, highway 417 is tempting. Or VIA Rail.

Cheers!

-E

Being hugged by a stranger...

The doorbell chimed in yesterday evening.

The snowstorm had subsided a bit, but it was still snowing and it was quite windy. No one is outside unless one has to. A neighbour? My landlord? Mhhh...

So I opened the door. I saw a tall man in his 60s, lots of grey hair and wearing worn out clothes. Mhhh... in this snowstorm?

Overall, the guy seems shy, and it's obvious that a lot of doors have been slammed on him.

He didn't say a word, but he waved a card at me. So I looked at his card...

A card, with letters A to Z, with drawings of a hand for each letter.

Dang, I immediately recognize... fingerspelling.

Fingerspelling is the alphabet... in *Sign Language*. The guy in front of me is most likely deaf.

On the other side of the card, there's a short text telling me that he's selling these cards for a living and asking me for a donation. I also noticed that it was for Valentine's Day. It's a bit late.

I was genuinely surprise, and he saw my surprise.

So I *signed*... DEAF YOU ? (with the proper facial expression for a Yes/No question). Textbook ASL. :)

You should see his face lighting up. Really, he didn't expect that someone who could sign!

What I didn't expect... he came to me... and hugged me!

Mhhh.. there are things in life which... you accept, no matter what. Can you refuse a hug? Of course not!

Hugged by a stranger, right at home. Home delivered hugs. :) Got to say, there are far worse things that can happen when answering the door!

Gee whiz, he isn't dressed warmly. He didn't want to come in nor drink something hot.

So I learn that he's born deaf, and he's trilingual, French, LSQ (Quebec Sign Language) and ASL (American Sign Language). He found absolutely amazing that I'm a hearing person and learning ASL for the fun of it during my spare time.

The conversation didn't last long... He wanted to continue his run. In this crazy weather? Yup...

So I gave him a substantial amount of money. That's the very least I can do.

So we "Muaaaaaaaaaahh" each other and he left. I stayed on the front porch for a little while, observing him, walking in the snow toward the next home...

In the snowstorm... I felt bad for him.

What can I do?

Now, it was me who was getting cold.

So I closed the door.

Sigh...

-E

Ahhhhh.... Ha ! Familiprix!

It says something about television... when ads get more fame than the show they sponsor. :)

On Quebec television, both French and in English, there are those "Ahhhhhhhhhh... HA!" ads, for the "Familiprix" drugstores. They all crack me up.

Such as this one:



The thing is... when you hear that "Ahhhh... HA!" something is bound to happen, like to this cyclist who didn't pay attention...




Here's the grand finale, 4 ads in one, with subtitles in Portugese, no less!




Those local advertisings have won many international prizes. Not bad, eh?

Ahhhh HA!

Cheers. :)

( Be well! )

-E

Casse toi alors, pauvre con!

Well, I figure it's the kind of news that will reach the English-speaking press.

It's French argot (slang) for: "Get out of my way, dummy!"

Those are the not very diplomatic words French president Sarkozy has uttered today at a French agriculture show.

In the brouhaha, it appears that someone was not exactly a fan of Sarkozy and he stood in his way... and Sarkozy didn't appreciate.

Le Parisien is a well known national newspaper. So I went on their web site, and yes... they got the video of the event.

Oops. :)

There's a non-written rule. A French president should never treat a French citizen as "pauvre con". No kidding. :)

That being said, if the French had heard the many not very diplomatic words from our former prime minister, Jean Chrétien, whoopy!!!

Enjoy,

-E

20 Chinese Deaf dancers perform...

This is why I like the DeafRead feed that you see on the right-hand size of my blog. Sometimes, you see some newslinks that are simply mind blowing.

Check this blog page: 20 Deaf Dancers Perform . There are two YouTube videos. It's eerie to see, and when you think that all these dancers are deaf, so they have to rely on timing, visual clues, and the feel of vibration of loud music.

Enjoy!

-E

PS: After you saw the videos, remember that we call deafness... a disability. It makes you wondering, n'est-ce pas? :)

Juno...

The other day, I had the chance to see Juno. The movie, that is. :)

I come from FC, which several fellow bloggers upthere didn't like the movie. Personally, it's not my kind of movie, it's a bit sombre for my taste, but it's a good movie, overall. I'm also quite pleased to see that it might get an Oscar.

Not sure whether it's our Canadian accent, or our culture? Juno, aka Ellen Page is a young Halifax native, and the movie was entirely shot in Vancouver.

Sure, there's no Bruce Willis, and no wall to wall big Hollywood-style special effects. A low budget movie, so you have to go straight to the point. This is also why I like low budget movies. :)

Teenhood, at a time when boys become men, and girls, women. With the sexual freedom we enjoy, what was bound to happen... happened.

Topics like teen pregnancy... and its potential consequences, like abortion and adoption... it's a bit heavy, albeit the movie makes it palatable, nonetheless.

But I can't help, but thinking of my own teenhood and the men and women of my generation. This was a pre-HIV era, and also at a time the pill was a reality.

Were we all saints... and always using contraception? Mhhh.... I think a lot of us would have to plead the 5th amendment, isn't it?

It seems that a generation later, in a time that promiscuity can be a deadly proposal, there are some topics that are universal.

I don't have kids, but at this adult age, the parenting fibre is present and strong. So I can't help but thinking of what would happen if my teen daughter got pregnant, or my son did so to his girlfriend. Abortion, Adoption? Ewwwww....

Of course, if it was up to me, my answer would be:
1) Oh thank you for making me a grandfather!

2)Keep your baby. He or She will still be better in your hands... and take care as much as you can... and yes, the grandparents are there... sigh.

So all in all, a movie that makes me stop and ponder about a few things... it's not a bad movie. Not bad at all. :)

Cheers,

-E

Almost there... and itching...

What's in common: A Canadian passport, a used Trans Link transit ticket from Vancouver, various currencies (Euros, US and Canadian $), some frequent flyer cards and rail cards...

Travel.

It's funny, I'm getting a slew of snail mail blurbs all telling me... that I'm "almost" there. Almost there for a free trip to Japan (thanks Air Canada and Aéroplan").

Almost there for another transcontinental trip by train, that one free (Merci VIA Rail!), while I'm almost there to maintain my "silver" VIA Rail Privilege status for the 2008-2009, etc...

Almost there. Le sigh...

So I was sorting my papers tonight, and somehow lining up these things as I found them, each of them a reminder of various travels I did.

It's itching like a rash, while I'm still grounded for several months to come.

Did you have a frequent flyer card begging you? A passport that feels lonely? :)

Mine do cry. :)

Oh, I think that I caught the travel bug. :)

Cheers!

-E

Worst nightmare for a parent...

Since I have my own issues about hearing (and also the fact that I'm learning ASL), this is why from my blog, I subscribe to "DeafRead".

So, "automagically", everytime you read my blog, you'll also see the latest from DeafRead, with their selections of stories off the Internet. Interesting text readings. (To my non-signer friends, not all these links point to ASL video blogs. :) ).

So I saw this title, Every parent of deaf child's worst nightmare, from Berke's Outspoken blog.

Imagine, being in a school bus and you're deaf. The bus driver is a substitute, therefore doesn't know you nor understand sign language. The bus assistant who could communicate in sign language wasn't there either.

This is what happened to a 13-year old deaf girl, and she was dropped off 2-miles from home, in pouring rain. Everything that could turn bad, did. Thankfully, there's a happy ending, but it's been indeed a nightmare.

Maybe because of my own issues, I always carry a pen and a piece of paper everywhere I go. If in the unlikely event that I don't have these items with me and I don't understand something that seems very important, I often make the gestures of touching my ear and then writing on an imaginary piece of paper. That's something non-signers will understand right away.

Yes, I could have stated so verbally, but it seems the visual aspect while I stay *silent*... speaks for me louder than my own voice. :) Besides, with friends, it's the fun of being tangential. Being straightforward is too boring, but I'm digressing terribly here.

Anyway... what seems glaring in this story.. is the lack of attempts to communicate in *other* ways.

The schoolgirl is obviously under BIG stress and of course she could be forgiven for not readily thinking about it, but why the bus driver didn't come up with a pen and a piece of paper, so she could write down the address of her home? And for him, to write down other questions to her? Is she ok? Does she need help? Etc...

Conversely, if the bus driver didn't have a pen and paper (which is highly unlikely, as they seem to always have to fill out various reports while they are on the go), why he didn't make... the signs I've just mentioned? Such as the gesture of writing on an imaginary piece of paper.

Especially with someone who makes use of sign language, that person more than anyone else will catch the visual clue.

Deaf people aren't dumb, and deaf people do learn how to write, just like everyone else. Besides, going at school... don't we all have to carry pen and papers,... unless things have changed since my time? Very unlikely, but one can hope? :)

But I also remember my childhood years, and bus drivers too. Some were really super... and then there were those... which remind you that bus companies hire anyone, and they _really_ mean anyone.

So disasters are bound to happen...

Ay ay ay...

-E

XO Laptop, re-revisited...

Busy life, busy weather (one storm after the other. Someone got to shovel all that snow!!!), so the little XO laptop waited patiently.

What is worth mentioning, is the shift of paradigm. PCs like Macs, despite all the hype are pretty much the same. A graphic interface... and you run applications. Applications have files and you manage files.

The XO puts the child at the center of his universe.

For instance, the "neighborhood mode" Like stars spreaded everywhere... are Wi-Fi "access points", hence the various dots in different colors.

It seems the colors are generated randomly for others' Wi-Fi access point, while mine is always blue. I wonder how it is on other XO laptops...

It's even more obvious in "Home" mode, with the big "XO" icon at the center, representing a child. So, around me, there are my journal, my piece of paper (a text editor), my world (a web browser) and so forth. Beneath are the battery (charging) and the Wi-Fi access points that I'm logged too.

At the bottom, are the activities I may like to do.

In a way, I have to "unlearn", to "untrain" myself about the traditional ways computers work, to begin to truly appreciate the XO.

Not showing in these photos are friends. Friends with XO laptops of course! :)

Since I have no one with a XO laptop around, I have to take OLPC's words. :) The idea of friends represents a shift in the computer paradigm.

Isn't for nothing that the P in "PC" stands for "Personal". You're in your own bubble, isolated, and you do your own stuff without worrying, nor being aware what others are doing.

However, the XO laptop assumes that there are other children... with a XO laptop (which would show up in these pictures as other XO icons, all of different colours).

Children have friends, and so are recognized by the XO laptop.

With friends, you can do things together, so is the XO laptop. You tell who are your friends, and you tell the XO what you want to do together. An essay? The text editor is fully shared. A whacky audio jam session? Sure. Apparently, all applications can be shared, and doing so is ahem... a child play, pun intended. :)

Sure, there have been "groupware" before, but they feel clunky, and those are just specific applications that have been built specifically for that purpose.

On the XO, it's the entire laptop and therefore everything on it that was built with sharing activities in mind.

Now, I have to let my inner child comes to the surface, and to find other XO owners to really see how well it really works. :)

The IT guy in me is amazed. For a $200 laptop, this is no toy computer. Its shell is rugged, it feels solid, there are many things that come built in (even a webcam, usually found on pricey top of the line PC and Apple laptops), tons of USB ports, there are decent built-in applications... not bad at all.

Then there's the guy in me. As a teen, I was in organizations like Marche 2/3 and the like, believing in projects to help the lesser fortunate of us.

When I grew up and began programming, my approach to computers has been the same too.

Computers are there to help us, humans, whether to compensate for our deficiencies, whether to help us to learn, whether to simply let loose our creativity, whether anything one could possibly want to do.

(These days, it seems the other way around, computers are controlling our life, but I digress terribly! :) ).

Given my background, it's no surprising that the XO laptop strikes a chord. In the long run, I don't know... how such computers will fare. I think they are on the right way by hiding as much "computer stuffs" as possible, and to present to a child... a world that is less intimidating, a world that is familiar to him, a world that is also fun, inviting, and a world that would stimulate his mind?

I'm also wondering about the social interactions of humans through computers. I come from the forum world, and if I count my BBS years, I've been online since 1984. That doesn't exactly make me feel young, and yes I do have grey hair... but I have seen a lot, and saw the evolution, since the ancient time of 300 baud acoustic coupler modems. :)

I've never been a big fan of computers in class school, yet... this is the intended usage of the XO laptop. To be used at school and being brought home later.

For all the good things unleached, there are bad things being unleached by computers. Also computers are sophisticated pieces of equipment, and too often, there isn't the expertise, both IT skills as well as *human* skills. This is too often true in our western world... So imagine elsewhere...

There's also a matter of culture. Those XO laptops are western designed, therefore with our mindset and our way of seeing and understanding things. Western solutions to problems... even in our own world do not always work, so again, imagine elsewhere...

I still believe that local solutions to local problems are the best. However, that's not always possible, especially in the short term, so all help is welcome, figuratively and too often literally.

In the case of computers like the XO... if they serve as a springboard for future generations, they will serve their purpose.

I'm also thinking that in countries with little infrastructure, in countries with ahem... dubious governments, one has to start somewhere. Why not with computers like the XO ?

Today's kids are tomorrow's adults...

... and better educated adults having more chances to be at key places... to allow things to happen? How's about better leaders? That's a long-term goal... but what is something like 10 or 20 years in the lifespan of a country?

Finally, I'm tempted to say bad words against OLPC. Hehehe...

For the way they royally scr*w up the distribution of XO laptops, it's a complete disaster. Also, how ahem... misinformations were being carried by that organization. There's a huuuge pool of good will that has been wasted, for nothing.

It makes me wondering that if they can't deliver laptops in countries like the US and Canada, nor able to even tell us donors what is going on with our orders with a reasonable amount of accuracy...

Gee whizz, in the very two countries which we have optimal infrastuctures... should delivery *NOT* being an issue, and communication should be flowing... easily?

So imagine in African countries... whether to have those XO laptops delivered, whether *to train* and *to support* teachers, when the infrastructure isn't there.

Mhhhh....

... and that's my comment about OLPC. :)

Nonetheless, I have big hopes for the little XO. The 3 persons in me (!), the IT guy, the online guy and the guy with a big heart and big dream are all impressed by this little green and white kid.

Cheers!

-E

Carbon tax and Fluevogs... :)

Thanks to my cable provider, I'm getting their "western feed". In other words, TV channels from Vancouver British-Columbia, and with these TV channels, their local news. Talk about living there.... by proxy!

Note: Partly sunny, +10C . Flowers are already blooming upthere. This beats our -20C this morning and 4ft of snow on ground. :)

I still miss my morning jogging in Stanley Park... oh well. Someday, I'll live there... *full* time. Ok, I'm terribly digressing, but it's my blog, am I allowed? Merci! :)

The other day, it was budget time for the province. After Québec, British-Columbia is the 2nd province to come up... with a carbon tax.

I'm highly skeptical it will do anything. If Québec's experience is of any indication... indeed we saw the impact at the pump... and not much else happened. So much for being "green". Time will tell...

However, sharp-eye and fellow blogger Clevergirl has noticed the real newsworthy event about this budget. As it is customary, the finance minister was wearing a new pair of shoes. However, this is no ordinary pair of shoes. We're talking of Fluevogs shoes, no less. :)

Ok, I'm a guy, so there are things which... will always escape me, and I have to accept that. :)

Sure, they are nice shoes and they please my eyes too, but I don't understand the craze about Fluevogs. Oops. Heresy!!!

Ok, it's time to hide in my igloo! :)

Cheers,

-E

Weird recorded message from Bell Canada...

When I came back from work, there was this strange message waiting on my answering machine:

(Translating from French)

"This is Bell Canada. We would like to talk to you regarding your phone number. Please call at this number between 9AM and 9PM. Thanks".

Ohhh, how rude it is. Intimidating too. "we would like to talk to you". I beg your pardon ?!?

I figure that if they want to pitch for more gizmos, there might be some kinder ways to do so.... if they want to make a sale.

Other things were weird. The recorded message says that I should call a 1-866 number, obviously a long-distance toll-free number, and yet on the Caller ID display, I see a local phone number within the 514 area code.

Curious and somewhat pissed off, I called. :) After all, the cost of the call is free, and I don't mind deliberately generating expenses when others have to pay the bill. Especially Bell. O:) I was also in the mood to let them know of what I think of their recorded message. :)

This is what I've heard:

-"Hello! Ici Bell Canada. Mon nom est xxxx. Comment puis-je vous donner un super excellent service aujourd'hui ?"
(Hi! This is Bell Canada. My name is xxxx. How can I give you a super excellent service today?")

Jaws dropped here!!! A *super excellent* service ? It's thick on superlatives, I'd say....

Ok, I'm on Candid Camera and the cameras are rolling, or I'm daydreaming all this and I SERIOUSLY need to catch some sleeps. It's getting crazy here!

-Well, there's a message on my answering machine and it says that I should call, regarding my phone number, I said.

-Is that so?

-OF COURSE, since I'm telling you!!!

-Please wait...

I'm wondering of what the heck I ate or drank this evening. I never thought that there were magic salads, or there could something in the Montréal water. I want to know what it is, because it's potent! I must be hallucinating, it's just too crazy!

-Oh, I see that you're calling from home.

Wow... With guys who are clever like that, it's going to take a while... and all of a sudden, I'm just glad that *they* are paying the long-distance charge, not me. :)

-What else do you see on your computer screen? I said

(I was tempted to say: What else do you see about my future... but as much as I felt it was a large scale prank, there was something telling me it could be true.)

-Oh, I see that we have to talk to you.

I had that sinking feeling that it's getting circular. Ok, I'm game!

-Isn't what we're doing right now? , I said

-You mean?

-Aren't we talking right now?

-One moment please.

For some reasons, I was thinking of Woody Allen. Only him would think of scenes that are _that_ crazy.

-Oh, I see that we have to talk to you.

I had this immense urge for _that_ nervous laugh... I'm going to burst, here!

-Again, I think that this is what we're doing right now, sir, I said with a cool calm voice.

-One moment please...

I'll spare you the details, but this is how crazy the conversation was on the phone...


SO this is serious and it's no laughing matters. A list of 3.5 milllions of customers in Québec and Ontario have been stolen. It contains the list of names, address and phone numbers incuding of customers with *unlisted* numbers (incidently, my case. My phone number is not listed, and it always irks me that I have to pay an extra $2 for NOT being listed in the phone directory). No credit card numbers or other personal infos were found, thankfully.

They arrested the guy (and he's not a former Bell employee) recuperate the data... and now experts are wondering how the data could have landed in the hands of bad people.

Bell Canada recovers stolen data on 3.4 millions customers

And Montreal man arrested in Bell Canada data theft case

So the alert *is* serious... and apparently, the entire desire of Bell Canada is to "talk" with their customers.

Given the kind of talk we had... mhhhh...

So this is it. If you get a weird call from Bell regarding your line, this might be that.

Good luck!!! I hope for you it's not going to be as crazy as it's been for me. :)

Cheers!

-E

Hôtel de glace / Québec's Ice Hotel

If you have a weird sense of humour... you can send this link to your friends and relatives.

I did that with my family in France. I could hear jaws dropping from this side of the Atlantic. :)

Yup, near Québec City, there *is* such a thing called "L'Hôtel de glace" (Ice Hotel). Buildings that are made entirely of ice (and snow).

Hallways, bedrooms, even the "furniture" *incuding the bed* are all made of ice, and yes you can sleep there for the night or spend a weekend.

According to their own sales pitch, a lot of their clients... come from places like Japan, Hawaii, and the US Southern States, from California and Florida.

Ice is exotic, it seems.

I'm telling you, this is a mad mad world!!! :)

That being said, no one in my family is eager to visit Québec... and staying at the Ice Hotel. Chicken! :)

Enjoy!

-E

Enough, shall I say ?

<--- Photo taken this morning. Again, that's my bedroom "webcam". :)

Note that the neighbour's fence has now entirely disappeared in the snow. The fence is *4 feet* tall. That gives you an idea of the crazy amount of snow we have here in "Southern" Québec.

---

I like snow... to a point.

My country is also known as the Great *WHITE* North for a reason, my handle is Eskimo *also* for a good reason...

But, I'm a little concerned, you know?

I haven't seen this much snow in my entire life, and we're near the all-time record amount of snow for the *entire* winter season... and we're just in mid-February.

PS: More snow mixed with dabs of ice pellets and freezing rain are forecasted later in the day.

PPS: Global Warming, anyone?

PPPS: The urge to hibernate never felt so strong.

Cheers,

-E

XO Laptop, revisited...

Right from my return from France, I got a bad cold.

You know what they say: Treated, it lasts 2 weeks and untreated, 14 days. :)

So I'm catching up with the OLPC's XO laptop. First about the latest news, it seems that distribution of a XO laptop is a total mess. A lot of donors are still waiting for their laptop.

Clevergirl reported recently in her blog that *3* months later, she is still waiting for her XO laptop. It is sad, very sad... and difficult to excuse. So, why such huge delays?

I don't know if it has something to do, but I found out that the XO laptop I got was poorly assembled. Is this what to expect from a "Made in China" computer? I don't know.

For instance, the battery didn't quite fit in the compartment. It needed considerable force for the right latch to hold the battery in place.

Removing the battery is not easy, as marks aren't exactly aligned.

Also the on/off wasn't properly aligned, so turning the XO on or off was difficult. I solved that problem with some manipulations and the persuasion of a tiny screwdriver.

This makes me wondering... are some XO with defects that are so bad... that they can't be shipped, and this is why there are such huge shipping delays? Your guess is as good as mine.

That being said, the XO laptop has been working A-1 since then. Of course, operating in an ideal environment from the comfort a western world home, err... my home is one thing!

However facing torrid temperatures (for a computer) of Africa, and being used and abused by children, is its circuitry still up to par? I wonder.

However its shell is rugged, it can withstand severe shocks, well beyond my fancy schmancy Viao. I still believe the XO will be a good travel mate. Its small size also helps. Time will tell whether computer problems will show up.

<---Under the hood, the XO laptop runs... Linux. There's nothing like firing up terminal and running "top"! The familiar display is there to prove that it's no Windows laptop.

(To all 'Nix nerds, yes I've checked, there's also... vi. Gasp! :) )

According to "top", the XO runs with 256 Meg of RAM. By today's standard, it's not a lot, but for the XO, that's plenty.

I see two users. The traditional "root" and "olpc" is the anonymous user which all applications run.

After using the XO for a while, I saw an inordinate amount of "zombie" process, but the XO kept chugging along with no ill effects.

I'll continue to report about the XO laptop. :)

Cheers!

-E

I'll take 15 Khallid and 10 Mursal...

This could have been the title of Chroniques Afghanes, a documentary aired by Radio-Canada last Friday. (you can see a clip here).

Khallid means freedom or liberty and is the name of an independant newspaper and Mursal, a women's magazine, both based in the suburbs of Kaboul... Afghanistan. The storyline is about these newspapers and through them, the population.

Radio-Canada/CBC cost us a bundle, but this is where they shine. Have an hour, it's yours and take the time to explain things. Something commercial television can't.

That being said, how to summarize 3 years in Afghanistan in just one hour? There is that. An hour is an eternity on television, while it's so short lived in reality.

Nonetheless, the documentary is at a slow pace. Enough that you could feel the day to day life. It certainly feels like another world... and the little and big frustration and the ingenious way to side-step them.

It is also a glimpse of Afghan culture and their way of thinking. And a way to make us think about our own culture, and somehow their way to see thing, there's a lot of wisdom in it... that we could borrow, I'd say.

It is about the rise and fall of dreams of a population, after 30 years of war, when the Talibans were overthrown, there were hopes, BIG hopes... and a country in shamble, dreams of reconstruction. A dream that the country would recover, and shine again.

Such dreams were still present in 2004, when Chroniques Afghanes began and when these chronicals end in December 2006, disillusion was getting widespread. The feel of freedom was gradually replaced with fears, and the influence of the Talibans getting omnipresent.

How could it happen? Corruption getting widespread, also broken promises from our own governments, sheer frustration of the local population in part fueld by our complete misunderstanding of Afghanistan of its people, its culture, even its economy... (and of course the *underground* economy) and when you leave it to the military calling the shots, well it's a recipe for disasters...

The documentary arrives at a good time, when our presence in Afghanistan is being questioned, and once again by our Conservative government, *strictly* from a military aspect, mhhhh....

I feel heart broken...