My wife was not happy with her android cell phone and wanted to find out it it was a faulty phone or that was just the way it was made.

So, after our swim, we went to the mall to talk to fellows who sold us the phone 2 years ago.  On the way we passed the Koodo kiosk and decided to stop ans see what they had.  Well that was it,  The saleperson was so good that he sold my wife on a new Samsung Galaxy S III on a cheap data plan and he convinced me to move my iPhone 4 from Rogers to Koodo.

Well that was the start of the long process to get me moved over.

1 – Connon, the fellow at the Koodo booth, explained about the different plans for Pat and myself.

2 – He asked me if my iPhone was UNLOCKED.  I said yes because I had that done in the fall of 2013 because i wanted to be able to use my iPhone when I was travelling.  I had paid my money at the time and that was it.

3 – Connon did all the paperwork and processed the switch over so that Rogers no longer was my service provider but it would now be Koodo.  All was going well.

4 – Connon removed the Rogers Sim from my phone and inserted the new Koodo Sim.  Problem –  phone says invalid sim.  Oh oh.

5 – I phoned Rogers help line and between navigating the menus,  getting my call dropped,  explaining my problem and getting transferred to another person:  I spent about 1 hour talking to Rogers while standing in the middle of the mall leaning against a pillar.  The Rogers staff could agreed that I needed the phone unlocked before I could have Koodo be the provider,  they could not find any proof that I had the phone unlocked.  And I maintained that I distinctly recall that I had it unlocked in2013 August time frame.  Total time on project = about 2 hours.

5 – I went home and phoned Rogers again about 3 pm.  Again I explained what the problem was. Now I spent most of the time on hold and being transferred  finally to the unlock department I got a fellow who tried to help and again on hold.  He could not find any record of my iPhone being unlocked.  He said that he had to go home now.  He explained that he had missed his bus and also missed the train.  So he now transferred me aback to Tech Support.  Time = 4:10

6 – New person in Tech support listens again to my story and goes in search of the billing information or some other record that would prove that I at least paid for the unlock.  I searched my expense file and found the bill that showed the billing for the unlock done September 03 2013.  Time = 4:15  Now the Tech support person also finds the record also to confirm.  To now back to the Unlock Group.  Time 4:18

7 – Wait again for 23 minutes. Time 4:41, a fellow from the Unlock group answers and I go through the story again.  He explains that I may have paid but it seems that the iPhone was not unlocked.  He accessed a database at Apple and my iPhone did not show up as being unlocked.  The reason, he said, is that I should have done a full Factory RESET at the time and then and only then would the phone be unlocked.  The salesman who sold me the unlock did not tell me that was the requirement.  Arggg.  (That is my story and I am sticking to it)

8 – Now to do a RESET.  But first I have to do a full BACKUP,  you know – save all of my music and apps and games and telephone numbers.  The UnLock Tech said do an iCloud backup. “Ok” says I and start.  Oh oh,  after about 5 minutes doing the backup a message appears that says that the backup will be finished in “about 5 hours”.   “WHAT says I”..  This is not right.   So I said good-by to the Tech and he said that he would phone later to see if I had succeeded or not. Time = 5 pm.

9 – The Unlock Tech called back at 6:15 and the backup to the iCloud still had 3 hours to go.  Arggg

10 – Ok, now I had to do a BACKUP using iTunes as I have done in the past.  Whoa , iTunes is not on my computer.  WTH.  where did it go?  I do not recall removing it.  I liked it.  Ok, no problem  I will simply access the iTunes site and do another download and reload iTunes.  Not so.  The download from the site using FireFox or MS Explorer did not work.  WTH.  I tried and tried with no success.  Ok, I thought, maybe I have some sort of virus so I started my Norton 360 scan to see what it might find. Time = 6:15  The scan is a long process.  So it is supper time.

10 – Time 7:30 pm or so.  I look at the results of the Norton 360 scan and it found 3 little possible problems and deleted them.  Ok, I think,  maybe that was the problem.   No.  I still cannot download a new iTunes from the iTunes site.  Arggg again.  Ok, maybe there is another site to down load from.  With a little bit of googling I find a site that looks safe and do a down load of iTunes.  It works and after 5 or so minutes I get iTunes running.

11 – Time 8 pm Now I try to do a BACKUP of the iPhone.   It seems to work so I left it for the night because it was going quite slowly.

12 – Time 8:00 am – Hooray, it works.  Now I try a full restore to test that the Backup was ok.  Again it was slow so I left it to run.

13 – Time 9:00 am –  The restore worked it seems.  So now to do the full RESET:  I get into the Setting – Reset and select to ERASE ALL CONTENT and SETTINGS.  iPhone asks for my passcode and I enter it.  Ok so far.   Now the iPhone asks for my Restriction Passcode.  WHAT it this?  So I do a bunch of digging on the web and find that is to prevent children from accessing certain things (I think).  I do not recall entering a Restriction Passcode.  So I try some of my 4 number favourites including 1234,  9999,  1350,  etc and nothing helps.  The troubling aspect is that the iPhone is now keeping track of how many times I tried and failed.  At 6 it said I could try again in 5 minutes.  Oh Oh.  On one of the help sites some fellow said that he tried many times and was up to a wait of 1 hour before he could try it again..

14 – Time 9:30  am-  I did a lot of googling and found a site that had a FREE (important feature) piece of software that would help me find the restriction passcode and possibly reset it.  Ok, here I go.  Short story about the FREE bit.  The instructions are quite good and clear but very fiddly and long.  I got half way through and figured that this was not for me.  I could end up messing up my backup and really killing the ability to do a full restore. I am a techi and can usually handle detailed stuff but this was deep water for me.    And then I read more documentation that said that the new iPhone software is different and all that previous stuff that I had attempted would not work anyway.  CRAP.  Then with more reading there was a mention of clicking on Utilities and then click on SHOW or RESET the Restriction Passcode.  Wow,  I had missed that.  That is exactly what I want.  So I click on SHOW and, you guessed it,  I got the message.  This feature is only available in the PAID version which cost USD $30.  CRAP again.

15 – Time 1035 am – I dig out my visa card that I use for internet purchases (low limit of course) and buy the PAID version.  And then I select SHOW the Restriction passcode and it says it is “0000′.   I am shaking my head now. (and maybe banging it on the desk top)  Yes, that is what I would have used,  Why did I not try it previously.  So I now own a nice piece of software for $30 that I will never use again and can’t sell because it seems to have a very good copy protection.

16 – Time 10:45 am –  I do the RESET and now enter my passcode and the restriction passcode of “0000” and the iPhone now does a full RESET. Finally.  Now I start the RESTORE from BACKUP and it starts but is running slowly.

17 – Time about 12:15 pm – RESTORE has completed.  Good.  I remove the ROGERS sim from my phone and replace it with the Koodo sim and we have lift off.  The iPhone is searching for a Koodo cell tower signal and finds one and give me 3 bars.   Finally.

So, the total cost to move my cellphone provider from Rogers to Koodo is about 10 hours of time and $30 USD for the program and $50 for the Unlock a year ago.  Had I known the rough path that I would be on I may have reconsidered the move from Rogers to Koodo.   It might be easier next time I venture along this path or then again,  maybe not.

I am a techi and can handle most of this stuff but this particular situation leaves me shaking my head about the complexity of the systems that we have built.  I was really hoping for something as simple as someone just turning a switch (or clicking a check box) that says my service provider is now Koodo and that should have taken about 4 seconds at most.  Instead I spent 10 hours,  Rogers technical staff spent maybe 5 hours.  Interesting.

12 –

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Canada has been looking for a new Fighter Jet aircraft for the past 10 years or so and had been fixated on the F-35 which was promoted as being the best of its class in speed and its radar invisibility. (they call this “stealth” technology).

And the life time price of the total purchase has risen dramatically from less that $10 Billion to at least #30 Billion (and some are saying possibly $50 Billion).  And this was not even going to be allowed to be discussed by the citizens.

Many people have issues with the total cost which is huge.  Can you imagine a singe fighter worth about $250 million (that is $15Billion purchase price divided by 65 planes).  Here I am estimating the purchase price as being 1/2 of total lifetime cost of $30 Billion.

Times have changed in the last 20 – 30 years.  Technology has changed dramatically.  The developers of fighter aircraft are using all the new technology to make the aircraft faster and more deadly in their purpose.  The avionic systems are state of the art and are VERY expensive.

I suggest that, in today’s new world of technology, that the very idea of a fighter jet may be out of date.  The idea of one or two airmen in a super fast aircraft (or missile) whose purpose is to intercept other super fast aircraft or to bomb or strafe enemy in bunkers (foxholes anyone) , is obsolete in the extreme.  The developers are just dressing up an old idea.

Today the cutting edge is remote control and autonomous and small and cheap.  Drones are the latest item now.  Most drones are controlled by some desk warrior 1000 s of miles away who goes home to his family after a days work.  New drones will be tricked out with AI (artificial intelligence) and very high resolution cameras.  These drones will be given the task of finding Mr. Smith and following further instructions like:  report location or kill.  Oh, these drones will not be missiles or even slow moving aircraft but may even be 10 kilogram silent helicopter types that may even look like a soaring eagle.  In 5 years from now the latest will be a drone that looks like a humming bird,  act like a humming bird but will be able to fly to a person and kill that person.  Can you imagine  Mr Smith lounging around in Belize with his friends and all of a sudden there is a swarm of humming birds that descends on them and they are all killed.  This will be possible soon if not already.

The future of the military is going to include thousands of small, cheap, aerial, unmanned craft that will do all of the snooping and various levels of combat.  If the drone is shot down or captured then the loss is minor.  It will be just like the loss of 1 bee from a hive of many.

Another technological advance that will determine the end of the fighter jet is the cheap, fast missiles that will take out any fighter they are told to “take out”.  If a fighter can fly at 2 or 3 times the speed of sound then a missile can do the same.  If a superbly trained pilot can weave and dodge in a “dog fight” then so can a missile.  A single pilot will be no match to 5 or 10 missiles.  And 1000 missiles will cost as much as a single aircraft. And there was another new item of a Gatling type gun that can shoot many 1000 s of explosive shells per second. Think of an aircraft flying into that.

So,  I am suggesting that the Canadian military invest in the new technology not including anything like the F-35, and beef up the other areas of aircraft that would be used in disaster relief and other non-war related activities.

And beside, if we get into a war with the US or CHINA or even RUSSIA then our little contribution will amount to “sweet bugger all” and we all might as well just surrender.

The goal of the Canadian government should primarily be that of peace.  There are going to be too many problems in the future related to global warming, loss of fish species,  loss of coastal farm land,  displaced populations,  hunger.  We should be preparing for these and not buying quarter billion dollar aircraft that will not survive their 1st mission.

HOT OFF THE PRESS – 2012-12=27

Here is an item that shows where the technology is going.  A quad-rotor copter with a machine gun and controlled with a video link.  It is quite crude but shows the concept.  And this was not created by a $100 million USD project but I suspect with a budget of only $10,000 to $50,000.

Take a look at this  Quad Rotor DRONE with Machine Gun

And this   Bug-Sized Lethal Drones

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We have visited the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney Australia many times and it is a fantastic park with lots of everything botanical:  grass,  trees,  plants of all sorts and then there are the bats.  These are the fox bats that live in the trees during the day and fly at dusk to the west where they can feed on fruit.    These are not your little mouse size bats but are more the size of a cat or a small fox hence their name I suppose.

During the day they hang from the branches and occasionally move up or down the branch and sometimes fly to another tree.  And they make their bat noises.  Interestingly enough, there seems not to be evidence of piles of bat dung or guano on the ground and pathways, thankfully for we who walk below these little beasts.

At at dusk, these bats can be seen flying west through the downtown area and between the tall buildings in the CBD (Central Business district) of Sydney.  Some seem to go straight west but others are flying back and then turnaround and head west again.  We are talking upto 40,000 bats flying over several hours at dusk.

The bats live in the various trees in the park.

We noticed that the staff at the gardens were setting up mist nets to catch the bats as they flew out at dusk.  The sign said that this was for banding and identifying the bats but considering the number of bats residing there I would guess that they may be gently culling the numbers back to a reasonable population.

Short video by National Geographics on the Flying Foxes in Australia   See Video

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See new information added 2013 AUGUST 11

WARNING – SKIP THIS ITEM IF YOU TEND TO HAVE BAD DREAMS CAUSED BY WHAT YOU HAVE READ.

Do you remember the fictional monster that was half gorilla and half whale and looked like a mix of giant dinosaurs and was called GODZILLA?  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla to see a quick summary of this beast).

This monster was born in the Pacific Ocean near Japan and over many years it rose out of the sea and trampled Tokyo and cause great mayhem.  His size was said to be due to genetic mutation due to radioactivity in the ocean from atomic weapons testing.

This monster had many weapons, most of which were based on radiation  – Atomic blast/Nuclear beam/Radioactive ray/Atomic ray.

GODZILLA of course, is a fiction.  The movie GODZILLA was some poor bloke dressed up on a rubber suit who trampled on cardboard buildings and swatted toy aeroplanes.  Great theatre.

However, GODZILLA II – also known as CS-137,  is not fiction but is real and exists and is VERY DANGEROUS.  And yes, GODZILLA II (aka CS-137)  was also created by radioactivity and has arisen from the ocean just like GODZILLA the original.

If you are not living under a rock or in a cave somewhere, you must have heard of the huge earthquake and tsunami that pounded the North East coast of Japan recently.  This was a huge tragedy with many people killed,  whole towns swept away and people evacuated from around the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant near Fukushima Japan.  The recovery process will take decades,  we assume.  The scars will be there forever.

CS-137 = Cesium 137 is a very radioactive element that is produced in the nuclear reactions in the power plant.

The common knowledge about the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant is

• spent fuel rods were stored on the roof of the nuclear power plant.
• some of the fuel rods have been damaged and have released some CS-137 (and other radioactive elements) into the air and ocean.
• work is proceeding to stabilize the storage facility and find a solution to the problem.
• The problem is contained and will gradually be solved – like Chernobyl, maybe, hopefully.

What is not common knowledge is that the situation is much more dangerous than most of us understand.

• Fukushima-Dai-Ichi has generated some of the largest concentration of radioactivity on the planet
• Probability of an earthquake 7.0 or larger in next year is 70%
• Probability of an earthquake 7.0 or larger in the next 3 years is 98%
• Probability that the Fuel Pool Storage structure will collapse if hit by an earthquake of 7.0 is very high
• THUS – Probability of a huge disaster occurring is almost 100% in the very near future.
  

The results of a collapse include

• release of ALL of the radioactive material in storage
• major contamination of Japan.
• evacuation of Tokyo,  (all of northern Japan maybe)
• Global catastrophe for all nations
• Contamination of North America, especially the West coast
• major contamination of the Pacific Ocean and gradually all oceans on earth
• Fish contaminated
• major increase of cancers due to Cs-137 and other radioactive elements
• possible destruction of our civilization.

It seems that this problem is not being discussed in the media.

Questions:

• Why is this story not being covered by the main media?
• If Tokyo or a large part of Japan is to be evacuated then where will they go?  Canada,  US,  Australia, Europe,  China?
• Are there any methods to decrease the effects of CS-137 inhalation or ingestion?
• How big a problem will the CS-137 contamination of the Pacific  Ocean be?

I would like to suggest the following:

• you, the reader of this blog item,  find out as much as possible about this situation.  Maybe I have been mislead.
• If you think that this is a problem the do something about it.  Talk to your local and federal politicians.  Demand answers. Demand action.
• we must get all governments to acknowledge that the problem is not just a Japanese problem but a world wide problem.
• all governments must provide unlimited assistance to solve this problem quickly before the unthinkable occurs.  World class cranes to support the structure,  concrete to provide permanent support and possible entombment (like Chernobyl) , robots to do the dangerous work,  and much more.

You can see the article that alerted me to the problem from GLOBAL RESEARCH here –http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30207.

and more here – http://www.countercurrents.org/alvarez240412.htm

and more 2012 June 15

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31401

Fukushima Model: Cesium 137 Dispersal in Pacific

Here is something new from ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com  (added 2013 MAR 04)

This shows the results of a model of the ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean dispursing CS137 throughout the whole ocean.  The whole ocean is now more radioactive.  CS137 has a half-life of over 30 years so it is going to be quite a while until its contribution to the base radiation will be deminished (7 half lives = 210 years yields radiation less than 1% of initial rate).
So enjoy eating the fish and maybe the mutated fish, and maybe even GODZILLA fish.

http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/radiation-poisoning/fukushima-model-cesium-137-dispersal-in-pacific.html

Fukushima is NOT OVER

http://www.countercurrents.org/smith180313.htm

It isn’t over. Danger to women, children, wildlife.

Selections from symposium “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident” New York March 11-12 by Helen Caldicott Foundation & Physicians for Social Responsibility. Radio Ecoshock 130320

Listen to symposium – frighening – CLICK HERE

(added 2013 March 18)

******************

 

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/06/08/holy-fukushima-radiation-from-japan-is-already-killing-north-americans/

Holy Fukushima

– Radiation From Japan Is Already Killing North Americans

 TRUTHER JUNE 8, 2013

You’re going to want to use every share button at the bottom of this article once you’re done reading, so get ready, it’s time to freak out:  Maybe.

If you live on the west coast of Canada or the United States, you’re pretty much already screwed at this point thanks to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011.  Radiation levels are already increasing in the food and water, babies born with thyroid issues linked to radiation are rising quickly and governments in Canada and the United States are raising the “acceptable levels” of certain toxic substances in the food being shipped in from Japan.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory, this is happening and it’s happening right now.  However, it’s your choice to either heed or dismiss the information being supplied here, which is for editorial purposes only.

The fancy little picture at the top of the article isn’t showing you the flow of happy fun time thoughts from Japan back in March of 2012, it’s showing you the flow of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011.  Yes, that sharp pain you just felt in your chest is the sudden realization that the image shows the radiation reaching almost past Hawaii more than a year ago.

Related:  Holy Fukushima – Is Your Drinking Water Safe From Japanese Radiation?  What You Don’t Know, Might Be Killing You.

Do the math – If that radiation screamed across the Pacific Ocean that far in one year, just how far do you think it has gotten since then?  Look at what World Truth TV is saying and then you decide.

Samples of milk taken across the United States have shown radiation at levels 2000 percent higher than EPA maximums.  The reason that milk is so significant is that it is representative of the entire food supply.  According to an article published on Natural News, “Cows consume grass and are exposed to the same elements as food crops and water supplies. In other words, when cows’ milk starts testing positive for high levels of radioactive elements, this is indicative of radioactive contamination of the entire food supply.”

The  Food and Drug  Administration and the Environmental Deception Protection Agency, instead of refusing to prohibit the sale of tainted foods and mandatory testing of foods produced and harvested from the Pacific Coast, have simply raised the “acceptable levels”  of radioactive material in foods.

If that doesn’t scare the ever-living crap out of you, then take a look at the list of foods you are now supposed to be wary of, you know, for only the next 30,000 years.

Related: NEW STREET DRUG 40 TIMES STRONGER THAN HEROIN FOUND IN CANADIAN DRUG RAID

How can we protect ourselves? First, be aware of what items are likely to be highly tainted.

1.)  SEAFOOD:  Question the origin of ALL seafood.  Fish and crustaceans from the Pacific Ocean should all be considered to be poisoned with radiation.

2.)  WATER:  The rainfall and snowfall are all radiated.  Do not drink any water that has not been filtered.   The tap water that flows from your faucet has NOT been treated to rid it of radioactive particles. A recent report from the NY Times stated, “A rooftop water monitoring program managed by UC Berkeley’s Department of Nuclear Engineering detected substantial spikes in rain-borne iodine-131 during torrential downpours …

3.) DAIRY PRODUCTS:  Milk and milk products from the West Coast states currently have the highest levels of radiation in North America.

4.)  PRODUCE:  Leafy Vegetables, Wines, Tomatoes, Strawberries….all produce from California or any other West Coast State are also likely to be tainted.

5.)  MEAT:  If an animal eats any leafy vegetable all along the West Coast, that animal has consumed radiation, and is poisoned.  This is any animal from cows, pigs, goats, sheep to wild deer and other game.

If you eat the above foods from areas with high radiation levels, you are eating radiation and feeding it to your children. Slowly the radiation levels within your body will build up.  This is PERMANENT.

Infant mortality rates across the United States have increased by more than 35% since the nuclear disaster, according to a court statement by Dr. Sherman with independent scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD.  A study published in The International Journal of Medicine indicates that more than 20,000 deaths right here in North America can be directly attributed to the release of radioactive material from Fukushima.

Radioactive isotopes of the type released from Fukushima have a half-life of 30,000 years.  This means that we must permanently change the way we prepare our food.

• Wash your food with soap and rinse it in filtered water. 
• Be aware of the origins of your vegetables, fish, game and seafood.
• Keep abreast of radiation levels to help monitor where your food is acquired.
• Use only filtered water for drinking, cooking and ice.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but that one way trip to colonize Mars is looking pretty damn attractive right now, especially after watching this video that was compiled by German scientists displaying the likely dispersion of Cs-137 in the pacific ocean.

To see a simulation of the spread of radiation across the Pacific Ocean  CLICK HERE

Related articles

• US Babies sick with congenital hypothyroidism from Fukushima radiation (ecochildsplay.com)
• Deadly levels of radiation found in food 225 miles from Fukushima: Media blackout on nuclear fallout continues (sgtreport.com)
• Internal radiation emitters – cesium and iodine – far more dangerous than external exposure(nuclear-news.net)
• Radiation: A Silent but Deadly Danger (smartsign.com)
• Japan may be facing cancer time bomb two years after Fukushima (japandailypress.com)
• Almost third of US West Coast newborns hit with thyroid problems after Fukushima nuclear disaster(rt.com)
• Fukushima 2013: A Continuing Nuclear Disaster of Global Significance| The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: The Radiation Warnings You Won’t Get From The Mainstream Propaganda Machine(tgrule.com)
• Tepco Faces Decision to Dump Radioactive Water in Pacific Ocean (bloomberg.com)
• Greenpeace slams WHO over Fukushima radiation (euronews.com)
• Record radiation found in fish near Fukushima nuclear plant (rt.com)

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I recently reviewed the SaveON More Rewards loyalty card system used by Overwaitea Foods and associated companies in BC.

What I found puzzles me.

The Loyalty cards when presented at the Cash Out often allow a significant discount on the products.
I recall discounts in the range of 20% and more on items.
This is great for the customer; buy a $10 box of cereal for $8 only. This sure helps with the food budget.
And all we have to do is present the Loyalty card and we get the discount.  This is great.

There is another aspect to the Loyalty Card and that is points are accumulated for the purchases made.
For most purchases the customer will get 1 point per 1 dollar spent. If the store is a special store then there may be up to 4 points per 1 dollar spent.
Wow. The more I spend the more points I can get.

Time for point redemption.
Points are worth something right?
I looked at the online catalog of products that can be purchased using points and got quite a shock.
I need a gazillion points to buy almost anything.
Here are some examples:
– Acer Aspire Netbook – 160,000 points
– $10 Starbucks Gift card – 6,000 points
I did some analysis of the items in the catalog and I found that the value of each point was only $0.00157.  That is a bit more that 1/10th of a cent.
That means 1000 points used in redemption is only $1.57.
Hmmmm
So, to buy the above Acer netbook for 160,000 points you would have had to spend $160,000 (at the 1 point per dollar spent)
To put this into perspective, if you spent $1,000 per week on groceries at Overwaitea or Coopers or SaveON stores then it would take you 160 weeks or about 3 years to earn enough points to buy the Netbook computer which can be purchased from the computer store for about $250.

The net benefit of the Loyalty card redemption for money spent is only 0.157% which is essentially zero.

The real benefit is the major discounts at purchase time which would be denied to the occasional customer who shows up without the magic loyalty card.

But of course, we all know that the store management uses the purchase information to help them make more money on their sales.
I find it difficult to understand what use the management makes of this data.
The codes of all of the products sold and the quantities sold and the prices sold are known by the day, hour, minute over the whole year.
What benefit is knowing that a customer aged 60 years has purchased 2 liters of milk and 2 loaves of brown bread each week for the past year help management with their operation.
There must be some logic to this. The analysts must be able to tease out some benefit from all of this data.
Or can they.

I suspect that the main benefit of the Loyalty cards is to show that those customers who have a Loyalty card are going to get something special, a good discount at the checkout.
This is a distinct and powerful incentive.

The point redemption plan seems to be a minor part of the system that maybe appeals to those who cannot be bothered or able to figure out what the points are really worth. Wow, you mean that I can get a free netbook computer if I have enough points. Wow.  I have to spend $160,000 to do so.   Hmmmmmm

And the analysis of purchases by individual customers may be analyzed like medicine men analyze the entrails of the sacrificed goat. But who know, maybe there is some benefit here.

–30–

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Here is an adventure that I just must tell you about.

I am now retired, well almost retired, and I am spending a lot of time around the house.

It seems that I am getting in my wife’s way and it has been suggested that I get involved with some activity out of the house.

I selected to get involved with a group called Seniors Resource and Outreach Centre in Kelowna.

The areas that I expressed interest in were helping seniors with computer stuff and one-to-one visitation.

I was and still am quite excited about this.

So, now we get involved in some of the requirements for the job. A 3 hour course on what seniors are and what situations some may be in. You know, loss of hearing (I know this one because I can’t hear very well myself), loss of friends and loneliness, and some loss of mobility for some of the older seniors.

One of the other requirements is to have a “Criminal Check”. This is to eliminate anyone that has a conviction for any offense that would make them not welcome for working with children or seniors,

Ok, I am raring to go. I get the forms from the Seniors Resource office and go to the local RCMP office in Kelowna and fill in the forms.

The receptionist checks all of the information and verifies my name, address and birth date. All looks ok so far. Now she enters my date of birth into a national data base of birth dates and there is a match and that seems to cause a bit of wrinkle in my application for a Criminal Check. Apparently people many years ago, if they had a criminal record, had their name and date of birth entered into a federal data base so that a criminal check could be done on them in the following years where necessary. Sounds good so far.

However, there was the possibility that a person could move from one province to another and change their name. And, it seems that the provinces were not required to send in this name change information to the federal data base. And this means the the person with the new name would not be found in the federal data base and thus would get a clear criminal check. Hmmm, I wonder who designs these systems.

The solution now is that to ensure that any person of a certain age who wants to get a criminal check, they must be fingerprinted. Hmmm, this could be interesting but what a waste of time and money for the system to do this.

Attempt 1

Ok, I say to the clerk, I want to get finger printed now. No, she says, there is nobody available to do the fingerprinting today or tomorrow because all staff is busy steam cleaning the jail cells.

You must come back Thursday or Friday. “Ok”, I grumbled and went away. You must know that I live many miles (kilometers) from the cop shop and it a round trip is about 60 minutes so I try not to make too many such trips.

Attempt 2

On Friday, after my swim, I go to the RCMP office again and show my paperwork to the clerk. The time is about 12:15 pm. She checks it over again and says that if I want to have my finger prints done today then I must come back at 1:30 pm. Apparently all the staff that are capable of doing the fingerprinting are away or on lunch together until 1:30. I was not amused and left. The clerk on my previous visit neglected to tell me that finger printing could not be done from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Attempt 3

Once again I visit the cop shop. This time I make a trip specifically to get the finger prints and arrive at about 10 am. My wife is with me. “It shouldn’t be too long I say.” “Ha” she says. “This is a bureaucracy that we are dealing with. Nothing is not too long. Ha.”

The clerk checks the documents again and takes my money. The province of BC charges me $30 for the process. The federal government would have charged me $25 but gives an exception for charities. So much for BC government helping charities. The province seems to be making it difficult for people to volunteer. This criminal check should be free IMHO. And they do not accept Credit Cards. Only cash or debit cards.

Ok, I am ready finally to get the prints. “Go outside and through the parking lot to a door labeled with a huge sign labeled C.” she says. Ok, we go out side and find the door labeled C and push the buzzer. No one answers. We wait for 2 or 3 minutes and press the buzzer again. Finally someone says “YES” and I say “Fingerprints”. A person says “Enter and sit and wait” and the door is unlocked and we enter and close the door. We are in a narrow little room with a wooden bench attached to the wall and a bulletin board with about 60 mug shots. The bench is fastened securely to the wall; I guess to prevent it from being stolen by the visitors or being used as a weapon by those tired of waiting.

There are 3 doors; one through which we entered and is now locked so we can’t get out, one into a little “confessional” with a post with a small wooden top as a chair and a window to allow some sort of conversation with a clerk or policeperson inside, and the third door, I expect will lead into the finger print room.

We wait. and wait, and wait. My wife gives up. We must re-fresh the parking meter so she bangs on the 3rd door and asks to be let out. A woman clerk opens the 3rd door a crack, peers out for peek, and presses a button and the main door open and my wife escapes.

Now, I wait and wait.

Finally, the clerk opens the door and asks me to enter.

Well, it seems that the fingerprint room is in the cell block which explains the security with locked doors and buzzers, and of course jail cells. This is not the place I wanted to be right now as interesting as it is.

Finally I will get my finger prints done. Finally. Maybe

The fingerprinting process is now electronic and computerized. The old ink fingerprinting stuff is still there on a table against the wall but the new system is in the middle of the small room.

The process begins.

The process is to take a full image of the 4 fingers of each hand which they call the “slab” and each thumb and then each finger individually.

She scans my driver’s license. My first and second name come up in one space so she has to delete and then manually enter the second name in the proper field.

The postal code is scanned with a space between the 2 sets of characters but the fingerprint program wants no space. This is because IMHO the program is from a US company and has not been modified to suit Canada. Saved some department some money on the purchase but is costing all the other departments in extra time retyping. Go figure.

Now the scanning. I rub a lotion on all of my fingers. This, I am told, is to make a better scan.

Ok, we proceed. First finger. Scan. Bad scan, not distinct. “Oh, I guess there is too much lotion” she says. So I use the little wet tissues to wipe all of the lotion off of all of my fingers. “Let’s try again” she says. Scan, Bad scan again, not distinct. And we try again and again. The clerk is getting a bit frustrated with my fingers.

Finally, she looks carefully at the offending digit and says “I know what the problem is. You are old and you have worn the finger prints off of this finger” So on the computer she selects an option that says “Indistinct because of age” She continues.

This process continued for all of my fingers and she ended up selecting the bad scan reason as “Indistinct because of age” for each.

What a process. Now we are finished I think. She prints off 2 legal size sheet of paper with the prints and my name and dates and a place for me to sign off.

I scan the sheet and find that my last name has been misspelled. It was “RCHIBALD” and should have been “ARCHIBALD” , the “A”was missing. CRAP.

The system was designed by an idiot. There is no function to go back and make a change somewhere, like to add the “A” back to my last name.

So, you guessed it. The whole process had to be re-done right from the beginning. The scan of the driver’s license scanned ok but the “A” was missing again. It looks as if the BC Drivers License system has a major flaw. The name as printed on the license beside the photo is entered from a different source than the name in the magnetic strip. Now what idiot designed that system? And who signed off on it?

The second scan of all of my fingers went much faster because the operator knew this time exactly what to do. Scan, select the reason why “Old fingers” ha ha.

I checked the spelling of my names and signed the documents and I was finished. What a process.

On the way out of the locked room and to freedom and fresh air, the operator said “You know, if you committed a crime and left fingerprints at the scene, we could NOT match you with the prints we now have on file. Have a good day”

Hmmm, That got me thinking.

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When I was a kid a million dollars was a hell of a lot of money. Our high school cost about 3 million.

Now a fighter jet costs $500 million and more.
Executives of large companies and investment bankers earn at least $5,000,000 each year and many houses are worth $1,000,000 and more.

And then there is the US financial bail out and people are tossing the word TRILLION around. What actually does a TRILLION mean? It is hard to comprehend.

Here is a visual example of what a Trillion means using US $100 dollar bills. You know the bill favoured by the drug barons and others that want to keep their savings in real live money, in the garage, under the bed, under the carrots in the garden.

So, let us pretend that we are responsible for gathering up a TRILLION dollars so the US government, the FED, can give this money to those that want it, need it, demand it so that the world economy keeps humming.

You gather a TRILLION dollars in $100 US dollar bills and get your friends to organize them.

STACKS
Count 100 bills and place them in a stack and bind them with a paper strip to keep them together. Let’s call this a STACK. Each STACK is worth $10,000. This is about the average wage of some professionals. This is about 5 times the wage of low wage earners.

SLABS
Now organize these stacks on the floor 10 wide and 10 long.
Let’s call these SLABS.
Now each SLAB is $1,000,000 or $1 million.

I just measured a US $1 dollar bill and found that it is 6 inches long by 2.5 in wide.
So the SLAB is 60 inches or 5 feet long by 25 inches wide.

SIDEWALK
Lets us consider this SLAB to be a segment of a narrow sidewalk.
The depth is about right, about 3 or 4 inches.
The width is about right, about 2 feet.
The length is about right, 5 feet.

BILLION DOLLAR SIDEWALK
Now imagine a sidewalk made of these Million dollar SLABS.
A BILLION dollar sidewalk would have 1,000 SLABS of $1 MILLION each.
This sidewalk would be 5,000 feet long or just short of 1 mile long
(If you think in metric then you can do the conversion easily)
You could easily walk, run, or crawl this distance.

TRILLION DOLLAR SIDEWALK
TRILLION dollar sidewalk would have 1,000,000 SLABS of $1 MILLION each.
This sidewalk would be 5,000,000 feet long or just about 947 miles long

So lets just round this up to 1,000.
Can you imagine walking on this sidewalk of US $100 bills for 1,000 miles.
That is the TRILLION DOLLAR SIDEWALK.

Now that is my view of a TRILLION DOLLARS

If this was done with the lowly $1 bill then the length would be about 95,000 miles long.

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We are currently visiting Australia and are enjoying it immensely.

We could not help notice all of the things in Australia that are different from where we live in the Okanagan valley of BC Canada. Some differences are small and really trivial but some are major. You decide.

1 – Backing in Angle Parking.

In BC, and I guess most of North America, we angle park by nosing in to the curb. Now the problem with this is getting out. When we try to get out of the parking spot and there is a van or something next to us and it shields the road we cannot see the traffic. So we edge out very very slowly hoping that the cars bearing down on us do not hit us or actually stop and let us out. I find this process quite nerve racking.

What some Australian towns do is to have cars back in on an angle. The advantage of this is to allow you, the driver, to see the traffic from a much improved angle so exiting is much easier and very much less stressful. A great idea in my opinion.

2 – Uniforms for everyone

It seems that Australians like to be members of all sorts of groups. There are the schools of course. Every school child has a school uniform that is unique to the school. This makes the problem of buying clothes for your kid in school very simple and hopefully much less expensive. We have seen crowds of school kids marching off to some function like the Museum, a field trip to a park or to some sports event and the mass of the coloured uniforms looks impressive. I suppose that there is a benefit to the teachers also in that they can scan the area and spot any student who is not where they should be. I would suggest that Canadian schools adopt school uniforms. Another great idea.

Workers in Australia also have colourful work shirts that are various shades of flouresent yellow, and red with the name of the organization on the back. The colour apparently a safety thing to prevent the public from driving over them and other workers from not seeing them in dimly lit buildings. It also adds some concept of the group and a sense of belonging I suppose. I think that this makes the workers look very professional and organized.

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Here is an interesting item created by HalfLifeCrew.

Oh Canada Video and Rap

I found this item in BOING BOING

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As you know I frequently visit the TED website.  I don’t do this because my nick name is also Ted.  I do this because there are so many very interesting and important ideas being presented.  These are presentations and not discussions;  some presenters are fantastic and some are a bit nervous and have a problem but the ideas and concepts are mind blowing.

Here is one that caught my attention recently.  It was presented by Dan Buettner, a writer and explorer with NGS (National Geographic Society).

How to live to be 100+  Project Blue Zone

This item is about 19 minutes

1 – Keep Moving – do not sit on you butt all day

2 – Decrease Stress and have a purpose to life

3 – Eat wisely:  small servings, no meat, do not overeat

4 – Have lots of  long term friends and family

I hope that this is of interest to you and maybe for your family.

Give me a call when you get to 90.

see this at

www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html

You can also search for the Blue Zone and see what you get.

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