E-Filler Archives

Hey everyone,

This is my first post since being in Trois-Pistoles, Québec. Things here are going well, and the first thing that comes to mind is how beautiful the town is. Its right on the St. Lawrence, and just past the mouth of the Saguenay river. The river is 30km wide at this point, and there are lots of opportuinities for whale watching and things like that.

Anyways, I gotta go. internet is money here.

davé

Here it is, hot off the press...errr webserver...the Toronto Star's coverage of today's world record attempt. I can say from first hand experience that the turn out was EXCELLENT. It was a lot of fun to go downtown and belt out "Hockey Night in Canada" with 939 other people.

Pictures and other media will follow once I dig them up. (Tracy, can you send me those pictures we took?) Update: I borrowed some footage from a local television station and posted it here! (Sorry about the aspect ratio...the people look a little stretched out) CBC has posted an article on the event here. The Calgary Sun has posted this article on the event. Here's a larger picture of Pete, Tracy and I.

Well, it finally happened...my personal odometer has rolled over yet again and I'm offically 23.

AND, to augment this rather short post: Here's an article about some kid who's going to sue his (former) university for not stopping his plagerism soon enough...does he have a leg to stand on? Probably not, but only time will tell.

Some Edmonton based company made some "Too Good To Be True" product that claimed to improve your car's fuel efficiency. Anyway, the Federal Court of Canada eventually put their foot down and fined the creators. (Full story here) My favorite quote from the story is this:

"In addition, the tribunal ordered the Golkas not to make false claims about the injector for 10 years."

Does that mean they can make more false claims in 10 years?!? Brian, you're the resident legal expert...what am I missing here?

The legend of William Hung continues...and it's getting a little too close for comfort. I grabbed this from his website:

On Sunday (May 30), the Blue Jays baseball team will play the Texas Rangers at the SkyDome and William will perform Jack Norworth's American baseball classic, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch!

I still don't understand how this clown's terrible singing became so popular. If you're there, take a picture or some video and e-mail it to someone here so we can post it on the site.

Update: There are 2 links to videos of the event in the comments section.

So, looks like competition to get into the Guiness Book of World Records is heating up. Some group in England and another in Quebec have all just tried to break the same world record that will be attempted in Toronto next weekend. They've upped the ante from 500 saxophonists to 1500, with over 600 already signed up...

See you there...

IWill is making a tiny dual CPU PC (with AMD Opteron processors)...why? I have no idea...would I like one on my desk? Yes. Go here for more details.

Update: Here is another link with some more photos and a better look at how cramped the unit is.

I wish I went to school out west. I pulled the following from an article on the CBC website:
"Stanley Cup fever has reached most corners of the city, inspiring one high school to schedule final exams around the games in the final series, which gets underway next week. The school doesn't want students trying to write exams the morning after a game."

Note: E-Filler will be offline for portions of this week. Each outage shouldn't last more than 10 minutes. Thanks for your patience.

Want a free mousepad? Click here or steal one from your school. My favorite part of that site is the quote at the top of the page:

"Wow... Received my mouse pad last week. Unbelievable...I luv it."

- WW, Canada

I don't know why I find this funny. I just do.

Some band called the Shuffle Demons wants to get Toronto into the Guiness Book of World Records by getting 500 saxophonists together to play the theme song for "Hockey Night In Canada". It's been a while since I played the sax, but I'm game for it...Pete, you in? More details here.

Dan

Dear Diary,
Jackpot!

Giggity giggity
Ohh yeah!

Hey
Dan, you need to work more or get a hobby or something. I can tell you are very bored in Burlington. You should come up to the capital for a few days, it'll take the edge off ya. What else are u gonna do, hang with your woman who is in Edmonton? I thought so

Brian

This is great. Someone wrote a worm to take advantage of a "security" hole in the Sasser worm. If I was to make an analogy between humans and computers, would I say "It's like my tape worm having ring worm?"

Well, I finally watched the last part of the Matrix trilogy...and let me say, the end makes no sense. No sense at all.

Some researches have discovered (or invented?) a virus which helps to fight HIV. It somehow attacks the HIV virus and prevents it from becoming AIDS. Check out the article here.

It looks like McDonald's took a page from the Book of Beer. It seems they have a "I am Asian" marketing campaign underway, which to me (a Canadian) sounds a lot like Molson's "I am Canadian" bit. Check out some more commentary here. (It's a British site, so I doubt they've heard of the "I am Canadian" thing.)

Check out this article on browser hijacking. Some guy's got hijacked by a script like CoolWebSearch and filled his history and cache with porn sites...now he has to register as a sex offender! It's shocking and disturbing...

For those who don't know, browser hijacking occurs when a website, program or e-mail attachment launches an Internet Explorer script that changes your browser settings, usually for the worse, without the user's consent. (Technical Note: I'm aware this is an over simplification.)

For the second year in a row (and with a 50 cent raise) I am working again at Laydon Composites Limited in Oakville. I have a pretty sweet job operating a huge, but tempermental 6-Axis robotic arm, built by Motoman. It is setup to pick up diamond-tipped drill bits and then trim and drill fibreglass auto parts. Below you will find a picture of the robot that I operate. The great part about working with a robot is that it is the one who does all the work. The only time I have to step in and "work" is when it fooks up, usually due to over heating or material to thick to cut at 1800 rpm. I understand this post is pretty lame, but pretty much the only thing that I've done so far this summer has been work, so I figured I'd share.

Domo Arigoto Mr. Roboto!



Laydon Composites Ltd.

Ever wanted to call E. Filler? Well, now you can. The number is listed here. Thanks Google!

Anyone out there remember this game?


It's Michael Jackson's Moonwalker...and old arcade game from 1990 (Note: That doesn't seem so long ago...I'm getting old), and was also available on a few other systems as well I think. Anyway, I had the opportunity to play this game today...I'm not sure what's funnier, the game itself or the irony of watching Michael Jackson rescue children.

Hello Dave? Are you out there? How is Quebec? Is the poutine really as good as they say?

Okay, I'm going to rip off a few Slashdot posts and condense them down into one easy to swallow post. If you've already read slashdot, you may skip e-filler today and proceed to the next site in your usual surfing pattern (do not pass go, do not collect $200).

So, some guys at Western finally got their Linux distribution mentioned on Slashdot. It's called Ignalum and their website is down as of time of writing. Their special blend of Linux promises unrivaled compatability with Windows...looks like they tossed a bunch of widely available tools and made them key features of their distro...I'm not too sure if they're adding anything new. They were also mentioned in the Globe and Mail recently...I'm still waiting for that article on E-Filler that I subitted to appear...ha ha

Next up is this Excel clone called PlanMaker. Slashdot gave it alot of flack saying that the spreadsheet that comes with OpenOffice does the same job...quite frankly, the spreadsheet that comes with OpenOffice isn't too great. If this product is as good as it looks, it's worth buying. (Their site is really busy today so it might be slow.)

I got this link in an e-mail today. It looks like Don Cherry might be calling "Coach's Corner" quits next year. There's a poll on the site (on the right) that asks:

Should Don Cherry be back on Hockey Night in Canada next season?

I doubt it has any real bearing on whether or not he comes back...I didn't bother to vote since I've never really watched him, and hence, don't care what happens! Although, I must admit, the visor comment was kind of funny.

I cleaned up the search function a bit. It works a heck of a lot better on multiple word searches. I also made the commenting option appear in the archives and search results.

Enjoy.

I've written about Longhorn before, as you may or may not recall. Longhorn is the code name for the next release of Microsoft Windows. Next week at WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) MS is expected to announce that the average PC running long horn will be the following:

Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.

Okay...let's think about this for a second. Longhorn isn't due out for 2-3 years. There are quite a few 200-500Mhz PCs running WindowsXP, and lots of ~1Ghz PCs running it. These systems are between 4-8 years old, and I would consider these to be today's "average system". In 3 years, the average system will probably be floating around 2-3Ghz. Where does Microsoft get their ideas? What PC will you be running in 2-3 years? How old is your PC now?

Wow...nothing exciting happened today. Here are some sites to check out:
• Stixfurniture.com - Buy their stuff
• Moneyman - A small website I wrote last year to track personal finances

Enjoy.

Look what we found on the "Burlington Teen Tour Band Booster's" website...

Pete, Cameron and David Fugman...you're famous! Now your images are used on TWO sites without your permission.

P.S. Nice track-pants Fugman ;)

Nice post Dan.

I found this picture, while different than the one published by the Seattle newspaper, its of the same subject matter. A guy named Russ Kick filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, and the military, after a number of appeals, sent him a CD with over 300 pictures of returned American soldiers at Dover A.F.B. Here's the site.

Two people have lost their jobs for taking a photo of 20 flag drapped American coffins returning from Iraq. During the Vietnam war no special arrangements were made to return the dead to the USA. They were brought back mid-day in plain view. This gave the public a good look at their losses and helped fuel the anti-war movement. In this war, the dead are returned in the middle of the night and their arrival is shrouded in total secrecy. The idea is to keep the public from getting upset over the images of their fallen soldiers returning. And what happens when someone does take a photo? Well, I guess we now know the answer to that. So much for free press.