Finally got the Internet working in the hotel here (and some free time) so decided I’d make a quick post. The flight here was uneventful, which is always good. The only problem was that our bags took about 20 minutes to come out, so by the time I left the terminal, it was 12:30 AM EST. I called the number for the shuttle that had been arranged to pick the SA’s up, and they told me they stopped after midnight – so I had to call a cab.

I know Toronto is huge, but the roads always surprise me. Especially say, the 401, which has 8 lanes for each direction in places – its just nuts! And its not like the roads are empty either, there is so much traffic going in either direction, day and night just about.

My roommate for the trip is Ian, who is the SA in Winnipeg. He could not believe we already had snow in Edmonton…after all, he is from Winterpeg. We started at 8 AM this morning, so I asked Ian to wake me up at 7:30 when he went for breakfast – or else yes Dickson, I’d have slept long past the alarm! So that was like 6 AM Edmonton time that we started the meeting, just harsh. And the same thing tomorrow.

So far, the event has been kinda neat. Different than last year, but thats to be expected when you have three times the number of students involved. We got a really neat theSpoke backpack packed with some goodies, and a nice black leather Microsoft portfolio. The theme for the weekend has been the summer Olympics, so for the ice breaker today we each drew a sport and had to perform it for everyone. I got cycling…needless to say, my performance was anything but!

After the meetings today, we went to a place called Rinx for pizza and some fun (no Megan, we didn’t get to go to the game). Its a neat place with hockey rinks, laser tag, mini golf, and a game called WhirlyBall. Think of a cross between bumper cars, lacrosse, and basketball, and that is exactly what WhirlyBall is. You drive bumper cars and try to fire a small ball into a hole in the back of a basketball net using a lacrosse stick. It was actually kind of cool!

And I probably would have played more WhirlyBall, but Rinx also happened to have a sports bar, so Mike and I went to watch most of the first and the second period of the hockey game. We left around the time the third started, and when we got to the bar back at the hotel, OT was just starting. All I have to say is, Go Tampa Bay Go! And kudos to Luongo, came up big when we really needed him.

Tomorrow is a shorter day for the training, and it should be a little more relaxed, so I’ll post more tomorrow. For now, go check out theSpoke.net. I really, really would like your opinion on the site. If you like it, let me know. If you think it blows goats, I want to know that too (and tell me why). I personally think it has a long way to go, but I want some other opinions. Thanks!

In case you were not aware, I will be in Toronto until Sunday night. I’ll try and make some posts about my adventure to Microsoft, but I know they don’t let visitors on their wireless network, so it all depends on the hotel.

Have a great weekend!

If you care about and follow professional hockey, you probably already know that the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA expires on September 15th. And if the current pace of talks is any indication, we’ll have a lockout – and a year without hockey. However, I think it could have been avoided.

First let me say that I am on the side of the NHL. I think something needs to change in order to lower costs, and it only seems logical to try and reduce your largest expense – player salaries. Yes around 75% of revenues go towards paying hockey players, a staggering amount. And that needs to change. And lets not forget that both the NFL and NBA are exremely successful businesses, and both have salary caps.

On the other hand, I think the owners brought this upon themselves. Why is the average salary now $1.8 million a season? Because the owners felt they need the best players to win a championship, and they were willing to pay whatever it took. History has proven otherwise, however. Carolina Hurricanes. Calgary Flames. New York Rangers. A larger payroll definitely does not mean a greater chance of success.

The players definitely should not get 75% of revenues. But the owners should also have forseen the events taking place now – there is no lack of other leagues that have run into the same problem at some point. I suppose it doesn’t really matter though does it? We’re here now, and we are facing the prospect of no hockey. In the end, the NHL will win and the days of skyrocketing player salaries will be over. I just can’t help but think there could have been a better way to accomplish the same result.

In the meantime, go Roadrunners!

I dunno, about you, but I think this is a dumb policy. The University of Texas at Dallas has decided that their students will not be allowed to have their own wireless access points on campus; instead they must use only the campus-wide wireless network. Its like telling students they cannot use 2.4 GHz wireless phones because that is what the University uses.

Read: Slashdot

So today was back to school, and the weather was appropriately shitty. In fact, its still raining and cold as I type this. Andrew posted about the first day back, and I figured I have some things to post. You tend to notice a lot after being out of the game for four months. So here we go…

Let’s start with the morning. Not only was it cold, but ETS felt it was a great day to have a trainee on one of the busiest buses in the city (the 4). We got to the campus 10 minutes late. Walking to my class I had to pass that little turnaround parking place in front of the PhysEd building and was extremely disappointed to see that the University is using my tuition dollars to hire some Joe Blow to stand there all day with an orange baton (think tarmack at airport) to make sure vehicles don’t stop. What a waste.

My first class was History of Technology, and while it seems like it will be good, my prof is completely backwards. He teaches a class about technology, and yet he refuses to use PowerPoint or post anything to the web. Ironic, yet painful. Next it was off to CAB for pizza and coke. What else? Was happy to see some good scenery to start the year!

Second class went well, then it was off to Earls on Campus for Wing Wednesday. The only reason I mention this is because that place has prime trim, let me tell you. Having a rough day? Go there and look around, your spirits will rise, I promise. Just remember to close your mouth as you gaze around.

Canada raped Slovakia 5-0 tonight, and I was able to see the first four goals with Andrew and Felicia at the PowerPlant before my night class. That was fun – we cured Felicia’s cough with some JD, and each had a delicious Baha Rosa shot (oh and beer) to start the year off right. Highly recommended since the damn beer gardens are freezing cold and wet.

Now for some observations…CAB has wireless! It was quite slow today, but at least MSN works! The price of parking is up to $10 (prolly to pay that idiot with the baton…I should have knocked him over the head with it). Oh and how could I forget? I have decided that EVERY class has at least ONE of those guys that nods at everything the prof says. Like they can’t help it. I swear if I was a prof, I’d say like three facts in a row then a lie just to fuck with him. Its amazing that “nodding head guy” doesn’t give himself whiplash.

If you have class tomorrow, have fun! Its nice to only have class Monday-Wednesday-Friday 🙂

Unfortunately, classes begin tomorrow for the fall semester. I think you can approach this two ways. You can tell yourself: back to another year of assignments that take way too long compared to what they are worth; back to another year of dodging the annoying first year students wandering around lost.

Or you can tell yourself: back to another year of happily wasting time in CAB; back to another year of meeting up for good times at the PowerPlant!

I think I’ll go with number two, and say “see you in CAB tomorrow from 11-12, and maybe after 1”. And at the very least I can proudly say – fourth year of University, fourth Orientation skipped!

Last night at dinner we talked quite a bit about music. Nick hates pretty much every band that is on the radio it seems, and since I highly doubt he is reading this, I will continue pretending he isn’t. Anyways, at some point I made the claim that “Blurry” by Puddle of Mudd is one of the best rock songs of all time. Nick was vehemently opposed to my claim, dissing the band as a cross between Kazzer and someone else, I forget who. He went on to say that “Blurry” was a horrible song.

The song came out in 2002, and went on to win the ASCAP award for the most played song of the year. Keep in mind, 2002 was the same year “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback came out – that’s some feat now isn’t it? Now, if someone can plausibly explain to me how any song that wins an award like that could be considered “bad”, I might think Nick is partially sane after all. It’s not like the band is paying every radio station in North American to play it. The radio stations certainly are not going to play something that their listeners hate. That leaves only one option – people really, really like that song. Enough to have it played more than any other.

Perhaps Nick thinks it is a bad song because it follows a formula. Well, so do 90% of all other songs ever released, so wake up and smell the coffee. I think thats a really stupid reason to not like a song or consider it “bad”.

Anyhow, I’m finished ranting now.

Yes, Dickson returned today (Monday) from China. And what better a way to welcome back a good friend than making him attend a dinner with friends when he’s completely jetlagged! I am not even going to bother writing where we went, because I am sure you can guess. We did have a good turnout though, with me, Andrew, Dickson, Nick, Sharon, Annie, Violet, Megan, Joe, and Jason all attending.

Its kinda funny actually…I had Patel’s dinner somewhat planned for about two weeks before the actual event, and I think we had more people come tonight after rounding people up just 2 hours before we went. In any case, you can see pictures from the event here.

Welcome back Dickson!

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I have an orange button on the left there that says “LiveMessage Alerts!” If you click the button (or click here if you’re too lazy to shift your eyes a few centimeters to the left) you can enter your MSN Passport (like what you use to sign into Messenger) and then you’ll recieve MSN Alerts whenever my blog is updated! Very cool feature!

In case you don’t know what MSN Alerts are, look here. Basically, you can recieve a short alert to your email, your mobile phone, or to your MSN Messenger (assuming you are signed in).

If you want to get the feature for your blog, visit MessageCast. Sign up is pretty painless, but it seems to me they could have eliminated one of the rounds of email it sends you, seems kind of cumbersome. Also, the service is in beta apparently, so who knows, it might even cost money in the future. Cool for now though!

Okay, okay, I know I post about this stuff a lot, but that just proves how important it is to me! Yesterday I came across this post that says the city of Jerusalem in Israel is rolling out free WiFi for the entire city. City officials in Philadelphia also think they can make the city wireless, for about $10 million.

According to this article, “Spokane, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, New York, San Francisco and Long Beach are among the growing number of urban areas that offer free Internet access in broad swaths of their downtowns.” Other cities I could find references of wireless for include Sacramento and Cleveland. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mention of a Canadian city.

Finally I came across this News.com article which talks about the explosive use of technology on campuses. One diagram in the article shows that only 8% of college and university officials have no plans or intentions for wireless on campus. Not too bad. Then they link to this report of the Top 50 Universities (in the US) and talk about their technology. Only real surprises, Princeton, Yale, and University of California at Berkeley all do not have wireless access! Never would have guessed.

So yeah, thats your wireless world update! Now if only Edmonton would roll out free wireless for all!