I don’t tend to have an inferiority complex when it comes to being Canadian, but I do find it amusing the way Canada is so often simply not listed when companies list their localized versions. The above screen-shot is from the NVIDIA site – notice how only Mexico and USA are listed as being part of North America? Where did Canada go? It seems pretty silly that Canada isn’t listed, or at least USA/Canada. Would that really be so hard?

Like many Canadians, when the National Do Not Call List was implemented, I went and registered my two home phone numbers, my one fax number, and both cell phone numbers in my family. I think I saw a drop in the number of telemarketers calling me, but it’s hard to say. This morning I as informed, by my mother of all people (I’m usually the one informing her of things like this), that this list isn’t quite what it appears to be. I’ll quote from the Wikipedia entry:

“In November 2008, it was reported that the CRTC had received thousands of complaints from Canadians about the implementation of the Do Not Call List. People reported that they had actually experienced a notable increase in the number of calls since registering for the list, and were starting to get calls at cellular phone numbers that had never received telemarketing calls before. In January 2009, numerous media and consumer advocacy organizations reported that anyone can use false information pretending to be a telemarketer and download the list for a $50 fee. It only took their reporter ten minutes to do so. The list is likely being downloaded and used as a telemarketing list overseas, where there’s little that can be done as the CRTC has no jurisdiction outside of Canada. On February 2, 2009, A Toronto Star headline labelled the CRTC’s do-not-call list a “disaster”, and the article recommended Parliament return to the original version of Bill C-37 by eliminating all exemptions. It further recommended cross-border cooperation to resolve jurisdictional issues and immediate tough enforcement to send a strong signal to violators.”

I had assumed there was some sort of “blind protocol” set in place here where the telemarketers would be required to do a database comparison with the Do Not Call List database, and numbers on that list would be purged from the telemarketers database. That’s the only system that would make any sense – yet it seems the system the government implemented was to bundle up all our phone numbers, hand it to the telemarketers, and say “Hey, don’t call these people, m’kay?”. Talk about naive! These telemarketers can then take that list of phone numbers and sell it on the international markets, or even pass it to their US branches to use as a calling list. Worst of all, they’ll get access to phone numbers that have never been put into the hands of telemarketers, such as cell phone numbers. What a mess.

I don’t know much about cars. I’m one of those guys that, if something goes wrong with my car, I’ll call the AMA and let someone smarter than me figure it out. The most complicated thing I’ve done on my own cars is replace a headlight. So there’s the context for this story.

On Friday I took my 2003 Mazda Protege 5 to Stoney Trail Mazda in Calgary for an oil change, and after 30 minutes a woman came back to tell me that they were suggesting the following procedures for my car beyond the oil change:

• Replace air filter ($30)
• Injector flush ($170)
• Power steering flush ($90)
• Replace broken fog light ($270)

I was expecting to walk out spending under $50, and they were suggesting I spend more than 10 times that much! I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, but I started asking questions because it seemed curious that so much needed to happen at once. The broken fog light, she said, wasn’t just a simple blown bulb – the entire assembly needed to be replaced. The car has 61K KM on it, and had never had any of the fluids replaced/flushed beyond the oil and wind shield wiper fluid, but did that mean that both the power steering and injector systems needed to be flushed? I ended up saying yes to the air filter and power steering flush, but said I’d decide later on the injetor flush and fog light.

After she walked away I started searching online for articles related to the topic, and found a good one on injector flushing. I also found a bunch of forum threads where people were discussing the same topic, and the general consensus I found was that unless there’s a suspected problem with the injectors, there’s no need to flush them. It seems that telling customers that their vehicle’s injectors need flushing is an easy money-maker for the auto shop. I’m glad I said no to that. As for the power steering flush, that seems to be more of a mixed bag – some people say it’s good to have it changed every five years or so – which means my car is due – but in general unless you’re having problems with your power steering, the fluids don’t need to be touched. As someone who does computer consulting, it looks like most fluid flushing is right up there with me telling someone the SATA ports on their computer need defragmenting, or their WiFi signal needs cleaning because it’s dirty.

Here’s what ticks me off about this: I took my Mazda back to a Mazda dealership rather than taking it to Mr. Lube or another quick-change shop because I wanted, and expected, by-the-book Mazda maintenance. Meaning that unless Mazda themselves recommended a certain procedure in the owners manual, the Mazda dealership wouldn’t recommend anything different. When I went up to pay for the procedures, I told the woman at the desk I wasn’t sure I’d ever come back to this dealership again for servicing. I wasn’t rude or angry when I said it. She asked me why, and I explained that after some research I didn’t believe that they were giving me sound advice about what really needed to be done on my car. She replied that merely relays what the technicians tell her.

The kicker? When I drove home and pulled into the garage I turned all my lights off and on, including the fog lights, and they all work just fine. I find it hard to believe that Stoney Trail Mazda would be so bold as to tell a customer a light isn’t working if it is, but on the other hand I’m baffled as to why they thought it wasn’t working.

So, any car experts out there care to weigh in on this?

Last night I had one of the most unpleasent dining experience in my entire life, and I’m creating this entry solely for the sake of someone Googling the name of the restaurant (Il Centro) and perhaps finding this blog entry. I won’t go into the boring details, but the short version is that the pizza is really tasty, but the restaurant staff is awful.

The one female waitress that was working last night was incredibly rude and gave us terrible service throughout our visit. The food was excellent – we tried the Calamari and three different types of pizza – but I’d never step foot back in that place again. It was insufferably hot even though it was cool outside, and we were completely ignored until I caught the waitress and asked if we could order – and she looked at me like I was a stranger on the street accosting her. My advice? If you’re interested in tasting the food at Il Centro, order take out. Their pizza is great, but it’s not worth the awful dining experience required to get it.

I heard about this commentary on the Fox News “Red Eye” show early this morning on the radio, and I’ve been stewing about it all day. I know, I know, they’re just a bunch of idiots trying to be “funny” – but as someone who married into a family with a military history, I take this personally beyond simply being Canadian. I have a cousin who has served two tours in Afghanistan, and thankfully she’s come back safe and whole both times. Below is what I emailed to Fox News (yourcomments@foxnews.com) – it pretty much sums up what I feel about this subject.

As a Canadian, I’m used to having my country poked fun at – and most of the time, I laugh right along with the joke. Friends can do that with each other, and there are no better friends amongst the nations of the world than Canada and the United States of America. We share a common culture, and many common values.

But…

To poke fun at our active soldiers, fighting alongside your soldiers – arguably in the more dangerous parts of Afghanistan than your own troops are fighting in – crosses the line from humour to insulting attacks. Let’s not forget that the single biggest reason that the Canadian Army is in Afghanistan is because the your country was attacked on 9/11. 116 of my fellow Canadians have died, with many more hundreds wounded, fighting against the groups that attacked your country. To mock their sacrifice is deplorable and reprehensible.

This type of “comedy” is on-par with the worst type of racism, and I expect Fox News to treat this matter with the utmost seriousness.

Jason Dunn
in Canada

I sent a variation of it to Greg Gutfeld (the host), and Monica Crowley. Bill Schulz only has Twitter as a communications method so I couldn’t send that message to him – instead I opted for a Twit that suggested he belittle the American soldiers fighting alongside the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and see what happened. I’ve noticed that the people with the biggest mouths tend to be the biggest cowards. The last panelist, Doug Benson, has his MySpace profile locked down to only receive messages from people on his friends list, so I opted to send him a simple Twit that informed him I was Canadian, and that I thought he sucked.

I should point out that, unlike some of the 10,000+ YouTube comments on that video above, I in no way take the opinions of these four people to represent those of Americans in general. Amongst 303 million people, you’re going to have some nutjobs. The question is, how do so many of them end up in the media?

Do you ever have those days when, at the end of the day, you wish you could have just skipped the day? Yesterday was one of those days for me. This is my therapeutic write-up about it. My day starts out with a quick check of my email, and I have a message from a major gadget site chastising me for a story we ran which quoted too much of their content and for not indicating the quoted material was from their story. I check the story, and sure enough, we did quote more than we should have – but the story was so short, it was hard not to. But I know what it’s like when another site takes more of my content than they should, so I write back to him and apologize, adjusting the story. Our headline linked to their story, but it didn’t have the name of the site in it, so I add to to the story. OK, no biggie, but not a great way to start my day.

Partially because of dealing with this, I end up leaving my house later than I wanted to – I had to head down to the local CBC radio office because I was invited to be a guest on a nationally-broadcast show called The Point. I second-guessed the directions I had in my head on how to get there, so I missed the turn and ended up having to make up my own route for getting there. On the way there I stopped at a stop sign and had some wicked sun glare to my right, so I couldn’t see that there was a car coming until I had already started to pull out – and I didn’t have the right of way. Honk honk goes the other driver – yeah, sorry about that, my fault. As I’m getting closer to where I think I need to be, I had to pull a U-turn on a major road, just as the light was turning green to let traffic start coming my way. The turning radius of my car wasn’t quite enough to allow me to to the U-turn, so I had to throw it into reverse when I’d turned as far as I could, back up a few feet, then get going forward again. I didn’t stop traffic, but I still felt like an idiot because when I see people doing that I usually think rather unkind things about them.  (more…)

I’ve been using VistaPrint to print my business cards for years – they have excellent prices, and great quality prints and paper. Almost two years ago, VistaPrint opened a printing location in Canada, and started serving Canadians from Vistaprint.ca. Seems like anyone in Canada should order from Vistaprint.ca, doesn’t it? You’d expect to save on shipping because it’s within the same country, and the prices should be in line with what Vistaprint.com offers, right? Wrong. I was ordering some new Digital Home Thoughts business cards today, and check out the differences between the .ca and .com sites. First up, we have the .ca pricing of $77.95 for 500 cards:

For $78 I could get the cards printed locally and likely have quality nearly as good as VistaPrint. Now check out VistaPrint USA’s pricing:

The base price for 500 cards is only $5 difference, but VistaPrint is known far and wide for their sales – they have a constant sale on their business cards, so the 80% discount isn’t unusual. Amazingly, the Canadian arm of VistaPrint rarely, if ever, offers any type of promotional sales – and you’ll notice that all of their base prices for upgrades are also higher than the US prices. So why would I order from them?

Well, maybe shipping will make up the difference? Wrong. Priority, 7-day shipping from the USA is $20.31. Priority, 7-day shipping from within Canada is $29.36. Even once I factor in a 25% or so currency difference, ordering from VistaPrint USA was more than 50% less expensive than ordering from VistaPrint Canada.

What does VistaPrint assume, that Canadians are stupid and lazy, and won’t bother looking on the USA site?

On Thursday I spent a good portion of my day driving around getting estimates to fix my car, and because the damage was over $1000 (when isn’t it?), I have to get a police damage sticker before any auto body shop can repair it for me. Looks like it’s going to cost me about $1500 for the repair, which isn’t as bad as I’d feared. Since I was out and about I figured I’d get the damage sticker thing finished as well – and the above photo is what I saw when I went to my local police station. Out for lunch. Really? If my local dentist has enough staff to work over lunch, why can’t the police? Or maybe this is a way of indicating they need more funding? Either way, it’s kind of ridiculous when essential services like the police shut down over lunch…

So here I am, driving home from church this morning, thinking about how incredibly poor the driving conditions are – it took me about twice as long to get to church as normal this morning because I had to slow down so much in order to be safe. For the past month or so, I’ve also been thinking about trying winter tires this year. I’ve never owned winter tires before, but as I thought about what it’s like to drive our two cars on snow and ice – essentially controlled skidding – I thought it might be time to give winter tires a shot. On my way back from church as I was nearing my home, I was marvelling at how the heavy slush made control so difficult – and about one second later I completely lost control of my car (I was driving the Mazda Protege 5). I was heading down a very slight incline, only 30 seconds away from my house, and doing about 25 kmph, and I started sliding to my right. I immediately realized I couldn’t regain control, so I went into damage control mode, aiming my car for a gap between a parked car (on the left), and a fence (on the right). I managed to pull it off, sliding up onto the sidewalk and into a green space area that is also the start of a walking path. Unfortunately there was a large metal pole at the start of the walking path, and I smashed into it.

In the above photo, if you look at the set of tire tracks on the left, the inside tire track is from my left wheel when I was sliding in – I missed the parked car by about four feet. You can see the pole in the middle of the green space area – it was under my car and near the back…so I slid quite far.

This is what I hit – I tried to put it back in, but it didn’t quite want to fit. I’m grateful that the City of Calgary made it a break-away pole…if it was held in place by concrete, I would have caused much more damage to my car (and myself).

And here’s the damage done – it doesn’t look like much, but “not much” in auto terms usually means $1000 to $2000, easily. Since it’s essentially one piece, the whole front bumper will likely need to be replaced.

I’m kicking myself for losing control of the car – the last thing I need right now (OK, ever) is $2000 in car repairs – but I keep telling myself that it could have been much worse if I’d slid into the parked car…then I’d be dealing with not only repairing my own car, but another car as well. I’d have to chose between paying out-of-pocket, or going through insurance and having them hike my rates. Speaking of insurance, I’m reminded once again of how much disdain I have for insurance companies; we’re insured by ING Direct, and like all insurance companies, they consider losing control on icy roads to be an “at fault” accident. Yes, it was my fault because I was driving, but it baffles me that I pay a large monthly fee for insurance against accidents, and when I have an accident, I can’t get it covered. Insurance companies suck – and evidently, so so does my driving skill on snow and nice…

I saw this interesting post over on Digital Nomads and I thought it was worth highlighting for anyone that works outside a normal office – although there may be lessons here for people that work in regular offices as well. I try to stick to a 9 AM to 5 PM work schedule, although there are some evenings when I’ll devote myself to writing or catching up on email. In order to minimize my online presence though, I’ll usually sign myself out of my IM client, and shut down Outlook (unless I’m playing email catch-up). And even though I’ve had the ability to use push email for years, I instead configure my Windows Mobile smartphone to check email every two hours during the day, and every four hours over the weekend. I also will happily ignore the email chime when it goes off. I never want to become one of those sad people who are trained like dogs to reach for their phone whenever they hear the email chime. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with one of those people? You’re talking, or they’re talking, and everything comes to a screeching halt as they have to check and see what email came in. Things have gotten completely out of control, and office workers need to take back control over their lives by working only within working hours. Ok, rant over.