WhiteEagle’s Aerie and Blog

A cool contest at one of my favorite forums!

I would like to tell you about a photography contest that I’ve entered. It’s being put on by HardwareLogic Forums, and is being sponsored by ASUS, OCZ, Kingston, Danger Den, & Thermaltake. You may want to check out the Flickr group, or read more about it here.

I have some goals to accomplish now.

Believe it or not, I have some goals that have to be accomplished in a certain amount of time. They were set by my parents, and the penalty for not meeting either goal in time is pretty severe: I have to move out of the house. Here are the goals and the amount of time I have for each:

1. Pay off all credit card debt by June 2009.
2. Buy a moped by June 2010.

Maybe I should set some more goals for myself after these two are done…

Continue reading I have some goals to accomplish now….

Just a quick post…

Just a quick note to say that life is good for me (at least I feel good today :D)

The news is depressing…from the fact that the sex trade thrives in Afghanistan to another quake in Japan that killed six people and wounded eight. Oh well, everywhere on earth, life can’t be good, though sometimes I wish it was that way.

I went and compared my friends today on Facebook.

Rating my friends was kinda hard, because I don’t know everyone in the flesh (a couple I have just talked to over the net), so deciding a category usually went to person that I felt was the best for it. Thanks to my friends for voting me “Best Friend” overall! I’m also pretty high up in the other categories I saw, so thank you for rating me the way you did.

It’s nice having exactly 24 hours between shifts (I finished work today at 4pm, and I don’t start work tomorrow until 4pm.). Nothing like a full day to relax between the end of one shift and the beginning of the next one!

I got an email today from the Minister of Industry, Mr. Prentice.

I got another email from the Government today, but this time from the Minister of Industry, Mr. Prentice. It’s quite a good read. Here’s what it had to say:

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.

What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?

Specifically, it includes measures that would:

• expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;

• implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;

• clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and

• provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.

What Bill C-61 does not do:

• it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation

What this Bill is not:

• it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia

Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner.For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home

Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter.
The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry

The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women
and Official Languages and Minister for
La Francophonie

It looks okay to me (what is said in the email), but I am not a lawyer, and I have not seen the mentioned bill, C-61, either. However, if what this says is true, it would be a fair balance between consumers and industry. It does not sound like what I’ve heard the US Digital Media Copyright Act is like. I can think we can breathe easy on this one.

A new cool site and an update on CrawlCache.

I went and added a new site to my cool sites today! It’s called ContactHelp.com and it is a user-updated directory of phone numbers for customer service and customer support of various companies. A vefy cool site IMHO, and a great idea! Oh, and congrats to them for winning Cool Site of the Day! ContactHelp.com’s address is (you guessed it!) http://contacthelp.com/.

A major update to the status of CrawlCache: I went and purchased a search engine script for it, and the company I bought it from does the installation. I can’t wait to see what CrawlCache looks like after the script gets installed!

I’m once again working on CrawlCache.

I am back working on the programming of CrawlCache. I am currently working on the spider that will grab info from sites and place it into the database, ready for searching. I’m using the cURL class to parse the pages, and I now have to figure out how to grab the data the search engine needs.

The rest of my time has been spent relaxing, and maybe later I’ll play a game on my computer. I sure can’t wait until I move into town, because then my laptop will be online all the time so it’ll be able to submit the F@H data whenever it is done the work, instead of only when I have a chance to connect in town.

I got a reply from the Prime Minster’s office today.

Remember that email I fired off to the Prime Minister a couple of days ago? I got a reply! Here’s what the reply said:

Dear Mr. Pinno:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Prentice, so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government’s initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister’s Web site, at www.pm.gc.ca.

L.A. Lavell
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

It’s nice to get a reply back, and that it got forwarded to Minister Prentice. Hopefully, they got lots of emails and will reconsider passing such legislation!

On the subject of Canadian politics, the Liberals if elected want to give us a new tax in the form of a carbon tax. It’s supposed to be revenue neutral. What does that mean? Does it mean we’ll each get a refund for the amount of tax we pay? I doubt it! It’s looks to me like the Liberals have found a way to pay for expensive programs they want to put into place while looking to be environmentally friendly. It does not fly past me though! They had ten years after they signed it to put it into effect, and now that they are not ruling the place, they want to appear green? I think they’re just trying to scam their way into us electing them into office!

Maybe one day I’ll have enough money for a supersonic jet…

I hope one day I will have enough money to afford one of the supersonic jets that are featured in this Wired article. The G650 from Gulfstream Aerospace sounds real nice, being able to fly from New York to Tokyo in 9 and a half hours, including a fuel stop. Of course, a better option might just be when my company has enough cash to just start an Aerospace division. Then, I could get them to design supersonic (and subsonic) aircraft for the company to sell and use. I guess I’ll just have to see how my company finances go in the future! Continue reading Maybe one day I’ll have enough money for a supersonic jet……

I emailed the Prime Minister today.

I went and emailed the current Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, on how I feel about the government’s plans to pass a US-style digital media copyright act today. I clearly stated that I feel that it would be unfair to consumers, and limit our rights to do with our media as we see fit! I said that Prime Minister, he should be able to find a compromise between industry and consumers.

I’m online in town (on my laptop)!

I’m online on my laptop in town while doing some web surfing, and I’m on a wireless internet connection doing it! It’s nice and fast, and I really like it. Oh, I’m also operating in full desktop mode. You may want to check this page out if you’re interested in doing the same!

Continue reading I’m online in town (on my laptop)!…

Apparently, it’s harder to get a USB modem working than it looks…

Well, my new laptop still doesn’t have internet access at home. It’s apparently harder to get a USB modem working with Linux than what it appears to be. On the subject of internet access, I think I will wait to move to town where I can get DSL before I get high-speed. Why? Satellite internet companies limit what sites you can go to, while companies that offer DSL (and dial-up) do not. Just means that if I can’t get a USB modem working with my laptop, it’ll be on WIFI internet only until I move into town and get DSL.

I tried getting a reseller account for JP today, but it didn’t have enough room for all my sites! How could I offer customers space, when there wasn’t enough for my own sites? I could not!

Barack Obama wins Democratic nomination finally.

Well, an African-American has finally done what many thought was near impossible - grab the nomination of a major political party for President of the United States of America. It may have taken him a long time, but Barack Obama has finally done it.

Senator Hillary Clinton signaled that she is interested in becoming Obama’s running mate. People who watch the US political atmosphere say that if Obama accepts Hillary as his running mate, the Democratic Party will have a better chance versus McCain and the Republican Party come November’s vote.

Personally, I believe that Americans are wise enough to see that McCain is a better choice for President then Obama. Why? Simple: While Barack (and Clinton for that matter) were waving back and forth when it came to policy while they were members of the US Senate, McCain was firm and rarely compromised during his membership. It’s likely that the winner of the vote in November will act the same way they did as when they were a Senator. America needs a firm President, who will get stuff done, and not some person who will be able to be swayed by the best speaker. That is what I think America needs in the next President.

Just a quick post…

Yesterday, I got myself a new laptop. I got the Asus Eee Notebook PC. It has a solid state hard drive, and it is very portable, being so small (less than 5 lbs!). It runs Linux, and the games and applications on it are excellent to use!

Today, I’m going to see if a friend’s US Robotics USB modem works with my laptop. If so, then I’ll be able to go online at home with it. If not, then I’ll only be able to go online in town when I’m near a WIFI hot spot. I’m also going to unlock full desktop mode on it, so I can install more programs on it.