Have to see it to believe it – Soap Nuts!

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Steve Wilkinson

Coming off of Canadian Environment Week (June 5-11th) and World Environment Day (June 5th) I thought I would share one of our latest environmental discoveries.

I often find myself a bit under-whelmed with some of ‘natural’ or environmentally friendly solutions I read about or test out. I suppose this makes sense, as some chemical cocktail designed for a specific cleaning purpose will probably beat something which just kind of works in that regard. If these solutions do work, they often require more work and elbow-grease. Both of these trade-offs are worth it, though, in many cases to lessen our environmental impact. Continue reading →

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Farewell Gizmo5, No Thanks Google Voice, Hello Callcentric!

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Steve Wilkinson

Ok, this is a bit of a rant, but might also help out some stranded Gizmo5 clients.

A couple weeks back, I received an e-mail that Gizmo5 services were being shut-down, and that I would have to transition my account to Google Voice, or get a refund on any remaining credit. I was expecting this to happen eventually after Gizmo5 was bought-out by Google, but was a bit surprised at the quick time-frame once announced (about a month). Continue reading →

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Can an iPad replace your laptop? Revisit for iPad 2

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Steve Wilkinson
IMG_0712

Photo: IMG_0712 by Jon Mountjoy.

In a previous article, I asked this question and listed some of the benefits of a tablet, yet also expressed some concerns (though I felt the answer would be yes for myself, as well as for many people). With the introduction of the iPad 2 (or iPad2) and all sorts of other improvements since then, I decided to do a ‘revisit’ article.

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. Continue reading →

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Abortion: Above anyone’s pay grade?

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Steve Wilkinson
abortion

Photo: abortion by Shockadelic.

In what might seem an odd topic for this blog, I decided to start a post to debate the topic of abortion. I’ve recently posted in response to abortion related articles at CNN and other places. Since these places aren’t a great place for such a debate to take place (their ‘forum’ software is horrible for that kind of thing), I challenged people to come here. Continue reading →

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Gas mileage conversion chart: Canada & USA

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Steve Wilkinson

I have yet to get used to thinking in Liters/100km for gas mileage here in Canada. Miles per Gallon (MPG) is simply engrained in my head. Part of the problem is just the difference in units of liters and gallons. But, there is also the issue of one measuring distance on 1 gallon, while the other is measuring the quantity of fuel over a distance. To top it off, they run inverse of each other. (ex: a car that gets MORE MPG is better, but a car that uses LESS liters/100km is better.) Anyway, it threw my brain for a loop while I was car shopping several months back, so I looked around the Internet for a conversion calculator or chart. I could only find one for UK gallons (which I didn’t catch for a while, which REALLY confused me for a bit). Calculators weren’t very convenient while car shopping, so I decided to make a nice chart to take along. Continue reading →

Posted in Cars, How-to, Tid-Bits | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Inexpensive stereo headset solution for PS3

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Steve Wilkinson

A friend of mine has been using a Plantronics .Audio 770 headset with his Playstation3 and has been quite pleased with it. I was not only unable to find one locally, but the cost on what I did find was more than I wanted to spend. My friend and I schemed a bit and came up with the following solution (cost ~$29):

Continue reading →

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Great OSX Services addition: WordService by Devon Technologies

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Steve Wilkinson

Just a quick post to point out an update to Devon Technologies’ WordService. WordService has just been updated to version 2.8 if you are already using it. Download at:

http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/index.html

If you are not already using this, I really recommend that you check it out. Continue reading →

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Economics: Vegas Style!

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Steve Wilkinson

The article, “Trading program sparked May ‘flash crash’” today (Oct 1, 2010) by Ben Rooney at CNNMoney.com confirms what I have feared for quite some time: there may be a good deal of ‘intelligence’ involved in the stock market, but very little wisdom.

The article outlines how a computer program was monitoring a certain type of stock, which reached a threshold, inducing the computer to start selling this stock. It was of a type and quantity, that the market reacted to the change, causing the computer to further react. This affected other stocks, and eventually caused the avalanche on May 6, where the Dow took the biggest drop on record in a single day (nearly 1000 points, or about $1 trillion). Continue reading →

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Can an iPad replace your laptop?

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Steve Wilkinson
IMG_0712

Photo: IMG_0712 by Jon Mountjoy.

That is a question I have been considering, not too long after the announcement of Apple’s new iPad product-line. Initially, I had been in the camp hoping the new tablet would be some kind of OSX device. While I would still love to see such a device, it is also apparent that one would sacrifice battery life even if it were considerably slower than my current laptop. Slower I could deal with, less battery life I can not. iPhone OS was clearly the way to go for a device of this size/weight.
Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | 15 Comments

Bipartisan Boondoggle

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Steve Wilkinson
I am currently taking a class on Christianity and Capitalism at school. We’re looking at the underlying assumptions of economic systems (esp. capitalism) to see how they fit into a Christian worldview. While doing some research I ran across this interesting article by A. M. C. Waterman. He has some interesting stuff to say about our current economic situation and stimulus packages.
Sorting Through Keynesian Rubble
http://www.c2cjournal.ca/blog-articles/view/sorting-through-keynesian-rubble
However, I also ran across a bit of interesting history. It turns out it was both parties who led us into this financial mess. Big surprise, huh?
Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/nov1999/bank-n01.shtml
While I wouldn’t align myself with the source (or agree with them on the whole), some of the quotes and information in the article are pretty interesting. If you read nothing else of it, read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs, remembering that this was written in 1999!
Consider:
“Legislation first adopted to save American capitalism from the consequences of the 1929 Wall Street Crash is being abolished just at the point where the conditions are emerging for an even greater speculative financial collapse.”
or
“A financial deregulation bill was passed in the early 1980s … lifting many restrictions … of savings and loan associations … to the home-loan market … culminating in collapse and the biggest financial bailout … more than $500 billion. The repetition of such events in the much larger banking and securities markets would be beyond the scope of any federal bailout.”
Well, it happened, and we bailed it out. The question remains if we can afford it. It may still well prove ‘beyond the scope’…

I am currently taking a class on Christianity and Capitalism at school. We’re looking at the underlying assumptions of economic systems (esp. capitalism) to see how they fit into a Christian worldview. While doing some research I ran across this interesting article by A. M. C. Waterman. He has some interesting stuff to say about our current economic situation and stimulus packages. Continue reading →

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