Year: 2008

It’s Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 and it’s Election Day in Canada. While the race here hasn’t been nearly as entertaining as the one our neighbours to the south are having, neither is it as agonizing or drawn-out. Neither will it be a confusing to vote, because there’s a uniform country-wide system of simple paper ballots, like the one shown below:

Even in this modern age, much of the world’s population is still under the rule of autocrats who were installed without even the pretense of a democratic process. Even if only as an exercise in Thanksgiving (which we just celebrated yesterday), get out there and vote!

Useful Info

• Each of the party leaders says why he or she deserves your vote
• Summaries of the party platforms
• What you need to know about voting
• Who are my candidates? Where do I vote?

Actually, I don’t think he qualifies for a Darwin Award since the stunt appears only to have hurt him — you have to die in order to earn a Darwin — but he is a prime example of how natural selection weeds out people who don’t think things through:

Animation courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

My favourite part is the surfboard coup de grace at the end.

If you have any ideas of what a successful outcome of the stunt would like, please feel free to explain in the comments.

One of the best ways to pull yourself up from a fall is to pull others up along with you. That’s why I’m giving away some old computers that have been gathering dust chez moi rather than selling them. The few hundred dollars I’d get by selling them are far outweighed by the good that getting them into the hands of people who really need those machines.

Here’s the latest computer in the Great Give-Away: a Pentium IV desktop with 19″ monitor:

I picked it up in 2004 at Factory Direct: it’s a refurbished HP whose model number is unknown (Factory Direct likes to remove identifying markings from refurbs). My best guess, after doing some poking around is that it’s a Pavilion a375. Here are its specs:

• Processor: 3.0 Ghz Pentium IV with Hyperthreading
• RAM: 512 MB DDR
• Hard Drive: 120 GB
• Optical Drives: 16x CD/DVD+ reader/writer
• Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 (128MB)

The monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 955DF, a decent 19″ CRT monitor. It may be big and bulky, but it does a decent job displaying graphics, and it’s free!

The computer’s got some niceties, including these front-panel jacks for audio, FireWire and USB and media card slots:

There’s a brand-new power supply installed in the machine, but in order to accomodate the power requirements of the video card, something had to give. While the 3.5″ floppy drive is functional, it isn’t connected to the power.

Available for Free

That’s right — I’m giving it away this system to someone who really needs it. If you are someone who needs a free computer or know someone who does, tell me the story at joey@joeydevilla.com. I’d prefer it if you were in the Toronto area (just because it makes things easier). I’ll give the computer to the person or organization whom I deem needs it most.

If you’re an urban photographer and come to Accordion City, make sure you pass by the corner of Queen and Spadina at least a couple of times during your trip. You’re very likely to catch some very interesting subjects, such as this strange arrangement of stuffed animals and plastic “army men” on a newspaper box that I saw a couple of weeks ago:

After taking these pictures, I left the arrangement undisturbed and continued on my way. When I returned fifteen minutes later, the arrangement was gone.

Today is the second Monday in October, which means that it’s Thanksgiving in Canada. I’d like to wish my fellow Canadians a happy one, and to my American readers, I’ll join you in a few weeks!

Here’s a home reno I’d love to have: for a base price of US$250,000, RiRa Pubs will build a fully-functional Guinness-themed Irish-style pub in your house, complete with “historic Irish architectural elements and authentic Guinness artifacts” and a year’s supply of Guinness’ lovely Stout. To add to the pub’s authenticity, the package includes a first-class airfare trip for two to Dublin, where you can conduct research at Guinness’ St. James Gate brewery.