The Contrarian Technologist

Category Life in Cape Breton
One of the great things about living in Cape Breton is the music, it is everywhere you turn. The Scottish Gaelic tradition is very much alive here and Nova Scotia actually has an official Minister of Gaelic Culture and Cape Breton is the epicenter of everything Celtic. Even with the small population of the island you can find live music every night of the week somewhere on the island, but it is especially true this week. Every year at this time the Celtic Colours Festival is held in dozens of location around the island with hundreds of artists both local and international. We attended the kick-off concert on Friday at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Center which starred the Chieftains (or rather the Chieftain - since Paddy Maloney was the only original member there) and guests. It was quite the concert, and there are dozens of reviews that can be found on-line, so I'll leave the reviews to them. I must note, however, that when we lived in Maryland we thought it uplifting that Martin O'Malley, the governor, could play the guitar and sing, but I have to admit that seeing Rodney MacDonald, the Premier of Nova Scotia get up on the stage Friday and step dance took the politician-performer to another level. We've seen/heard him play the fiddle and step dance many times over the last ten years, but seeing him in his official capacity, in a suit, on the stage in front of several hundred people was special. We've got tickets to 5 more concerts this week, in smaller venues so I am expecting to be well entertained but exhausted by the weekend.
www.celtic-colours.com
Article in the Cape Breton Post

Posted by Kit Davis At 3:18 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
We were inundated with Hummingbirds this year. They first showed up on May 10 and by the middle of August we were going through almost 2 bags of sugar a week making nectar for them. They are impossible to count, but I would estimate that we had over 50 birds on a regular basis. The males (who were the first to arrive this spring) left about 2 weeks ago. Slowly over the last two weeks the females departed, and today, I haven't seen any at the feeders. I guess this means that fall is close at hand.

Posted by Kit Davis At 10:09 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Technology
Finally, I no longer rely on satellite for internet connectivity. Actually, to be more accurate chronologically, I don't have to rely on dial-up for access to the internet. Earlier this year, the satellite system that I was using died suddenly. I was hesitant to get it repaired because I just didn't think that the service was worth even a fraction of what I was paying for it. Despite spending over $10,000 to get the dish installed and a monthly bill of $300, access was always marginal at best, upload speeds were horrendous and the service was often unavailable. In fact, the first thing I noticed when switching back to dial-up was that the speed in many ways wasn't all that much slower. Certainly downloads took much longer, or were impossible, but regular web-browsing was pretty much the same and in some ways actually faster. This is mainly due to the unavoidable latency of the satellite connection. Now, I will not claim that dial-up was pleasant or that it was possible to get any real work done, but by moving servers into a new office in town, I was able to limp along while I searched for some new alternatives. In reality, there was only one real option - wireless. The phone lines here are old and of poor enough quality that no one I know has ever managed to get a connection at a higher speed that 26.4K. I toyed with the idea of getting a T1 line installed, but the cost was prohibitive and my concern was that the phone company would be willing to take the order, but unable to install the service. I started researching wireless equipment and drawing up plans to become an ISP. Then one day in mid April, a neighbor called and told me that a guy had come knocking on their door looking for the person that owned a house up the side of the mountain where he wanted to put a tower for wireless internet. A flurry of email messages ensued, and after a few months of feverish activity service started being delivered in mid-August.
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Posted by Kit Davis At 7:50 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Technology
There has been discussion on some other blogs about whether or not IBM should support Ubuntu and/or other Debian based systems. The current response from IBM is that they are focused on platforms that have a lot of business use and see little value in supporting "home use" versions. Now, I will readily admit that I know little or nothing about Linux. I'm ashamed to admit that getting some better skills has been on my priority list for the last several years and every year it doesn't get done. I made a commitment earlier this year to have half of my server "farm" migrated to Linux by the end of the year and while I have a server up and running I have never felt confident enough to make the move.

That being said, the new Beta of Domino has doubled my resolve in this area, and convinced me that IBM should rethink their support of Ubuntu.
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Posted by Kit Davis At 10:05 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Technology
It's now been a little more than a week since I was lucky enough to find and down-load Beta 2. There are plenty of people blogging about all of the new features so I'll skip that discussion, but I am just really amazed at how stable the product is. After giving the product my usual 10 minute testing, I upgraded my servers and workstations the weekend before last. When I restarted my main Desktop yesterday for an unrelated reason, I realized that this is the first time any of the machines have been restarted since the initial install. Pretty damn impressive for a beta product! Maybe others are having a different experience, but from what I can see from the forums, there are a lot of issues (both big and small) being reported about the UI, but very few people seem to be reporting major crashes. I have a not so secret method for figuring out how stable products are. For 20 or so years, Maggie has been a big thorn in my side when it comes to technology. No matter how well I think something is working, or how easy it should be to use, invariably, she manages to break it within 24 hours of implementation. I'm happy to say that I upgraded her to the Beta Client three days ago and I haven't heard a single complaint or issue yet.....

Posted by Kit Davis At 9:50 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)