MPAC Is Screwing Me
Two weeks ago I received a letter from the City of Ottawa to let me know that the lying cheating bastards at MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) were screwing me.
A little back data. In early April 2007 I entered in an agreement to buy my house for $238,900. The final closing date after construction was completed was December 3rd 2007. In 2008 a 2 years freeze in property tax assessment was lifted. McGuinty (another lying cheating bastard) said that some people would see a 20% increase in the value of their house. I saw a 10% increase in the value of my house, from $238,900 => $264,000 which seemed pretty high considering it closed in late 2007 for that amount. Anyway, I checked some real-estate listings and it seemed a little high, but not unreasonable.
Well throughout the summer of 2009, I saw similar houses sell in the range of $255,000 => $275,000 as values continued to rise. I was hoping that it would not be a huge change on my 2009 (if they decided to do one).
Well, what did the bastards at MPAC do? They went back to my 2008 assessment and raised it again! By $31,000. The new 2008 asssessment is $285,000! Maybe it is just me, but in 2008 with an economy falling flat on its face that the value of my house would increase by $46,100 or 19% but leave it to the bastards at MPAC to fudge the numbers to get property taxes levels in order.
Anyway, I now owe another $300 in property taxes from 2008... I can't wait to see what they do after they find out about my renovations. My house will be $1,000,000 in the next 10 years at this rate!
BGI: Really Simple Syndication
Everyone has websites that they know and love. They go back to them time and time again. Well as spend more and more time with your fingers tied to a keyboard (or for the true internet beginners... with their hand on a mouse!) the number of sites that you need to check on your rotation will increase to an unreasonably large number. So how do you keep track? The answer is Really Simple Syndication or RSS. I know that most people have seem the RSS symbol, but I know that far too many people don't use it.
It's tough for me to fathom that the internet newbies aren't using RSS, while the internet hipsters are already giving RSS a post-mortem. I don't believe that RSS is dead, and certainly not in favour of Twitter (which is a strange and wonderful beast, but that will be explained in a future post). So here is what RSS is and why you must embrace it...
RSS is a full site summary of all content summarized in one document (XML format) so that it is machine read-able so that it may be consumed by many different platforms, usually called feed readers or feed aggregators. In my mind there is only one feed reader worth using that is the very excellent Google Reader (reader.google.com). What this gives you is a common place to view the new content from all the sites that you regularly follow. It will give you an unread count of new items from all the sites, that is updated roughly hourly.
It lets you keep track of sites that would normally take hours to follow and do it constantly. To put it in perspective I have 357 feeds in my reader now, and I am able to keep mostly up-to-date in the items I wish to read (which certainly isn't everything). There is no way I would be able to do this without a reader, as going to 357 sites daily taking 30 seconds per site (not reading anything) would take 3 full hours. Having this inbox of articles to read is simply awesome.
RSS Article Inbox
Adding sites to your feed reader of choice is very easy, just click the RSS icon in the address bar like this one seen in Firefox.
RSS Icon address bar
It will prompt you with what you would like to add the feed to, pick google reader and you are away to the races. It honestly will change the way that you view the internet. The idea of 'surfing' will be a thing of the past and you will have Google Reader (or *sigh* some other reader) open all day to see what is new. It is a real time saver, and lets you keep up with everything that you want to know.
So take a moment and add the feed for this blog to your reader: TylerOnEverything.com RSS Feed.
Beyond the time saving abilities of this sort of setup it has the added benefit of giving you your own microcosm for google to search. Think of it your own private google!
So embrace RSS and stop surfing blindly.
Trying to make my list of my top 10 movies of all time
I want to have a list of my top 10 movies of all time. This is not going to be an easy process. I also want this to be in order.
Here we go... (Warning this will not be terminated in this post!)
- Black Hawk Down
- The Hurt Locker
- The Matrix
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- The Departed
- Pulp Fiction
- Kill Bill II
- Kill Bill I
- The Shawshank Redemption
- American Beauty
- A Few Good Men
- My Cousin Vinny
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Return of the Jedi
- Se7en
- American History X
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Adaptation
- The Sting
- Braveheart
- The Great Escape
- No Country For Old Men
- Fargo
- The Big Lebowski
- Die Hard
- Heat
- Unforgiven
- Snatch
- Lock Stock and Two Smokin' Barrels
- Groundhog Day
- Terminator 2
- Sideways
- A History of Violence
- Fight Club
- A Fish Called Wanda
- Field of Dreams
- Grosse Point Blank
- Shaun of the Dead
- Last of the Mohicans
- Royal Tennenbaums
- True Lies
- Leon: The Professional
- Office Space
- Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
- The Usual Suspects
- Reservoir Dogs
- Inglourious Basters
No particular order on these... I'm thinking that this list will grow and shrink, and start to re-order over time. Now the real work starts...
BestBuy.ca Ignores Their Own Policies
Two weeks ago I saw a great deal on the new Batman video game at BestBuy. I thought, oh well, what the hell I will give it a shot, I am a big Batman fan and it is supposed to be pretty cool. Regular price was $69.99 and the special pre-order price was $38.
So I ordered and waited patiently for it to ship. Well the release date came and went and there was no shipping notification. Strange. So I checked the status; Out Of Stock. That seemed strange. Isn't that a little counter productive for a pre-order? So in response I sent an email expressing my dismay to the BestBuy.ca customer support.
The response was this:
Dear Mr. Brown:
The manufacturer allots us a certain quantity of the product for pre-order based on their estimation of how many will sell.
With the popularity of this product their estimates fell far short of the demand. We are filling the orders in sequence, oldest orders first, while we wait on a new shipment of inventory from the manufacturer. We have not been given a definite ETA as to when we can expect this though.
We will be filling the orders as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience in this matter.
Sincerely,
Maggie
Agent ID 20985
Best Buy Canada
Again that seemed odd as it seems to defeat the purpose of the pre-order. So I dug a little deeper. Here is what I found on the BestBuy.ca pre-order portal:
BestBuy.ca Pre-Order Policy
That is exactly what the policy is:
Lining up for games is COOL. Not. When you pre-order online you're guaranteed a copy without the early morning drive. If you pre-order, you're getting your game; we don't oversell our pre-orders.
After I discovered this I called to inquire, after a lengthy conversation explaining to the customer service representative that they had violated their policy, I was told by the agent: "I don't know what to say". I suggested that perhaps I should speak to a manager. I explained myself again to the manager, who said that the problem was due to a computer glitch that allowed for extra copies to be sold. He said that I actually got lucky since it should have been shut down and I never should have received that price. As compensation for violating the policy they gave me 5% off the order and free shipping.
I am still not sure if that seems like reasonable compensation, as well I don't know if I will ever pre-order anything from BestBuy.ca again.
Sink Problem Update
Got the new drain assembly, looks like it should have flowed a lot worse than the standard grid drain. Worked like a charm. I was able to sleep last night!
That Sinking Feeling – Plumbing Nightmare?
I have been busting myself recently trying to get my basement reno finished. It is getting very much into the home stretch. Last night was not a good night for work. I am currently working on about 4 hours of sleep due to a very strange problem.
I was attempting to install a sink in the bathroom, one of the new vessel style sinks:
Vessel Link
Pretty straight forward. So everything got hooked up. One problem... It wouldn't drain?!?! I was terrified. The last thing I wanted to be doing was to start tearing apart walls looking for a clog. As a test I pulled the clean out on the P-Trap and it flowed no problem. Ugh Oh!
A few more tests. Filled up the sink a few more times. It would drain well for a bit, then it would slow to a stop part way down. Every few times that I tested it, there would be an air bubble then it would drain all the way down. Crap. Is there an high spot and an air lock in the wall? That would be bad. So I took the sink off and poured water directly into the P-Trap. Drained perfectly... So the problem was with the sink? I checked the drain to make sure there was no blocks. It was really easy to check. I have a grid style drain so I could look and blow straight through it.
Grid Style Drain:
Grid Style Drain
I was completely stumped. It seemed like the water was just dripping into the P-Trap. And I pretty much knew that the problem was between the sink and the trap.
I did a quick internet search. What did I find? All kinds of problem with grid style drains and vessel style sinks. The best explanation was this one:
The problem the OP is experiencing is due to the combination of a grid drain and a sink with no overflow. In order for the sink to drain properly, water must displace the air in the drain pipe going to the trap. In sinks with an overflow, the overflow acts as a vent allowing air to escape the drain pipe as water pours into the pipe through the drain.Without an overflow, the air in the pipe must escape through the same drain that the water is using. That is why you will see air bubbles coming up through the holes in the grid. Grid drains make the situation worse - probably due to the surface tension of the water interacting with the little holes in the grid to basically form little seals. Also grid drains tend to have less aperture area than umbrella valves. The more area the easier it is for the water and air to share the same drain.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bath/msg1100324329325.html
Sure enough sticking my hand in the water and spinning it (creating a vortex) caused it to drain perfectly. Alanna bought a new drain as per the recommendation from this forum post: http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbing/new-non-vented-sink-vanity-install-drains-slow-253882.html.
Umbrella Style Drain
Regardless I am exhausted, frustrated, and a little pissed that the drain that came with my sink doesn't work.
On a happier sink note:
Brake Lights Need A New Design
I read tons of stuff outlining new and innovative designs. I should be writing about one of those ideas, but being that I would much rather complain than gush, I will explain why brake light design sucks.
Yesterday I was driving home from southern Ontario, and as always the further you get into eastern Ontario the quality of the driving goes further into the shitty mess range of the spectrum. I was following one guy who seemed to brake every 10-15 seconds. The car in front of him was braking and he would barely slow down. After a few minutes of this I figured he was either resting his left foot on the brake peddle or was absolutely paranoid. Being unable to pass because of the traffic I accepted his incompetence and when he would brake I would left off the accelerator since he was not really braking. Well that was all well and good until he really did slow down. I almost ended up parked in his trunk. Luckily I did not, but it left me thinking that an on/off night is not appropriate for brakes.
Instead of a simple bi-modal light I think that the brightness of the brake light should be related to the intensity of the braking action. It would give you a clearer indication of what the idiot in front of you is doing, and more quickly alert you to upcoming dangers.
Along the slightly different lines, brake lights should not be limited to the rear of the car. When you are at a yellow light and looking to turn left it would be nice to know whether the oncoming vehicles are braking or have just mashed down on the accelerators to try to make it through the light. It would give you a much clearer indication of what oncoming cars are doing.
If car companies are serious about making cars safer, then forget turning the car into one giant air bag instead give us a clearer indication of what the surrounding jackasses are doing.
BGI: AJAX and why JavaScript is so damn important!
So many times I have seen and heard people speak of AJAX like it were a programming language. I have heard people who know nothing about computer programming, and I have heard programmers say it. It seemed like for a few years everyone was talking about AJAX, and I guess to some point people still are. Perhaps now people are just taking it for granted.
Well AJAX is not a language, in fact it's not even really a technology, it is more like a technique. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML. What it does is give the ability for web applications to behave more like desktop apps rather than the page reloading after each click.
The first application that extensively used AJAX was GMail, it revolutioned the way that web apps looked and functioned. So how does AJAX work? First a few things that you will need to know about Javascript.
Javascript is run in the browser, meaning that it is not run on the server, so when javascript executes it will change the appearance of the webpage without a request to the server. For the most part it was used to change images when you hovered over them, and change text when a button was clicked. Nothing particularly powerful, it really seemed more like a toy. It gives the programmer the ability to change different properties of the HTML on the fly. So if you have something along the lines of <h1 id="myHeadline">The Headline</h1> you can access the element by its ID and change the style or even the inner content.
So for instance document.getElementById("myHeadline").innerHTML = "New Heading" would change the "The Headline" to "New Heading". The ability to alter there elements without contacting the server was useful but it didn't have much power.
What has happened now is the ability of the browser to make a background request back to the web server to fetch some data. This is all done with javascript. The javascript will then update the page without reloading it. This gives the look and feel of the desktop app.
Because of this type of behavior javascript has become a very important part of common webpages. You now see that browsers base their speed ratings very much along the lines of their javascript engine. These new fangled sites speed to operate. How long it takes to open an email in gmail, load more comments on digg are dependent on how fast the javascript engine is in your browser.
Crappy Turns Awesome: Cursive!
The summer of weddings is upon us! Originally there was supposed to be 3 weddings in the month of August, all of them in Toronto or further. One of the weddings was thankfully postponed for a year which left us with two weddings in August. Way more manageable. The one that was somewhat crappy was the one that is scheduled right on Alanna's birthday (Aug 2nd) on the Sunday night of a long weekend. It means that Alanna can't celebrate her bday on her bday - I still think she should wear a party hat to the wedding! - and being smack dab in the middle of the long weekend in Toronto, it ruins the long weekend. Real pain the butt right? Turns out no!
By a huge stroke of luck it turns out that my favorite band Cursive is playing a very rare Toronto date on the 1st! I can't believe how perfect the timing is, since really, even if we weren't supposed to be in Toronto I would have driven down for the show anyway!
So really this kills two birds with one stone, and really turns a crappy situation into an awesome one.
Some videos:
I Couldn't Love You from Cursive on Vimeo.
CURSIVE - BIG BANG from Cursive on Vimeo.
ART IS HARD from Cursive on Vimeo.
FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
I can't express how mad I am. So I post some of my electronics on Kijiji they having a fucking stupid policy of randomly selecting ads and putting them on hold for 24 hours before posting them (meaing that if you want to sell something quickly that Kijiji is fucking useless!)
Anyway, I wait the 24 hours an ad fucking finally gets posted, I don't see much action on it. So I update the price.
GETS FUCKING PULLED DOWN FOR ANOTHER 24 FUCKING HOURS! WHAT THE FUCK! KIJIJI IS FUCKING USELESS.
*sorry for the cursing, but I am really angry*
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