E-Filler Archives

I bet that title had you fooled...really the Convervative government is going to introduce legislation to fix the election date. The idea is that this will keep majority governments from fine-tuning the election dates to improve their chances of winning again.

My questions is can't a majority government simply repeal this legislation once they're in power?

His old webpage has been converted to a simple tribute. There was an incident last night changing the water. He panicked a couple times really badly. I think he bumped his head against his little cup (that I keep him in while I'm changing water). Anyone who met Nerdcore knew he was really really excitable and active, much moreso than the average betta. It was part of his charm, but...I think it was only a matter of time before he stressed out a little too far.

:(

Well Bart Simpson, it turns out that the direction the water turns in your toilet is NOT a result of the Coriolis effect. Apparently this is a wide misconception, and the Coriolis effect is insignificant in comparison to other factors, such as the shape of the sink and direction that the water entered the basin.

Who knew?

Stories like this are what is wrong with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. 2 kids, who commit 2nd degree murder should be named (I suppose that would have to be upon their conviction). This isn't a "youthful indiscretion", it's a serious crime...by age 15 you know better.

Burlington got a little more exciting today: Apparently the bomb squad has been dispatched to deal with a truck that was abandonded in the middle of the lift bridge this morning.

For those who don't know, the lift bridge sits parallel to the Skyway bridges (there are 2, 4 lanes each I believe), which carries the QEW Niagra. The channel that the bridge spans connects the Burlington Bay from Lake Ontario. The bay plays host to a few small marinas, but more importantly is used to deliver raw materials to Stelco and Dofasco.

Update: Looks like the situation is over...no bombs.

For those who don't know, there are different methods (or encodings) for representing text data inside a computer. The more common encodings are ASCII and UTF-8. So, when a piece of software needs to open and read a file containing text, it's important to know how that text is encoded so that the right characters are shown, otherwise the text may appear as jibberish.

Sounds simple enough...except when dealing with HTML/XML/XHTML/XMLHTXMSL/you-get-the-idea-ML and webservers. When talking to a webserver, the webserver can indicate the document's (in most cases an HTML file) encoding in the 'ContentType' header (TEXT/HTML; charset=UTF-8), using the 'Encoding' header, the 'CharSet' header, or none of the above (which is usually the case).

Additionally, the xML DOCUMENT may have the encoding actually written as text inside it (inside some meta tag)...which is really the nicest part because how can you decode this meta tag if you don't know what encoding the document uses?!?! ARGH...

I have 2 LPT printers (an HP LaserJet 4P, needs a cleaning) and an Epson Stylus Color 640 (an older bubble jet) to get rid of. If you want one (or both) send me an email.

Theme songs.

To quote a certain you-know-who, "that is the most basic yet amazing site ever".

The following video was taken from the security camera inside a tunnel somewhere in Russia.


My personal favorite is the bus...