HARDWARE: A Kindle Reader Has The Right To Change His Mind

I remember waaaaay back to the dawn of my eReader age (it was 11 months ago), I pooh-poohed the Kindle due to a lack of page numbers. I looked at the Sony PRS-300 before giving it to Dawna. Seemed IT had page numbers. The Kobo's I gave my Mom and AJ had page numbers (although I thought they were footnote numbers first). Later, after trying the Kobo for about six weeks, I discovered I wasn't enamoured of the occasionally text-obscuring page numbers on the Kobo.

But still, when I finally got my Kindle3, I admit I thought it was a negative. I didn't cotton to locations and percentages read all that much. So imagine my delight when Amazon officially announced the release of version 3.1 of the firmware for the Kindle3 which, amongst other things, finally gave page numbers to Kindle readers. Well, keep imagining, because it doesn't give me cause to do the upgrade at all. I'm perfectly happy with locations and percentages, thank you very much.

The realization I had left page numbers behind was a book I described as a quick read. And, indeed, it was. Well-written, a real page-turner, I read it in one night. And still had time to get in a decent amount of sleep. Only later did I discover that the book was 420 pages long!!! The fact is, that I probably DO read about 10-20 percent faster on my Kindle than with a book in either hand. Page turns, while more numerous, occur at the blink of the eye, rather than requiring me to reach out and physically turn the page. So, while I read paper books at a pretty consistent 50 pages per hour, I guestimate I'm doing 60 equivalent pages on the Kindle. Maybe more.

Amazon's update does more of course. It has more social features (Do I strike you as 'socially-inclined'?) and I don't annotate OR need page numbers for research purposes. A better handling of magazines and newspapers is lost on me because I don't read THOSE on a Kindle. Too small, too non-coloured, etc. So this update doesn't offer me anything to pant over. Realistically, I wouldn't HATE page numbers, but I no longer need them. Besides, I never talk over specific page numbers with anybody anyways. My 'Book Club' mainly consists of Patrick. And he LISTENS to the books. We gab about chapters if we talk specific parts of the books, if at all. Nope, this update is not for me.

Plus, there is the tiny itsy bitsy issue with Amazon's latest update fouling up the jailbreaking process. It won't stop already jailbroken Kindles and their existing add-ons, like the screen saver extension I have on mine. But it stops the current methodology for jailbreaking. Until the miracle workers who write the jailbreaking code create a workaround for the Amazon workaround, I think letting everything sit as is, is the best policy. Later, who knows, maybe I make the upgrade because it truly doesn't offer any negatives and even a slight positive is still a positive.

Until then, I have changed my mind. I don't want page numbers.

SPORTS: Karma And The Knicks

Here's hoping Karma has a heap of ill luck awaiting Carmelo Anthony, James Dolan and Isiah Thomas.

Break a leg Carmelo. As I once wrote to Baron Davis, the author of a similarly distasteful exit from a team, REALLY, BREAK A LEG. You're a jerk and a stupid one at that. Do you REALLY think your 'handling' of your selfish trade demand TO the Knicks was better than Chris Bosh's polite (but ultimately dishonest) refusal to re-up with the Toronto Raptors last year. Then I apologize to all stupid people. You aren't even that bright. But we know that. Despite a great offensive game and incredible god-given athletic ability, you laze about on defence to the point where NOBODY outside of family members thinks you are all that special. Carmelo's certainly not amongst the real basketball stars of the NBA. An offensive weapon and a defensive dud. Shame on you. In so many ways. Like I said, break a leg ... and/or a foot ... or whatever prevents you from playing.

Cuz James Dolan and his unofficial aide, Zeke 'The Sneak' Thomas, the killer of pro basketball teams AND leagues, deserves every bit of bad karma that can come their way. They already made the Knicks the laughing stock of the NBA for a few years in order to afford to buy really great players from poorer teams. Amar'e Stoudemire turned out better than expected, but they failed to pair him with anything better than Ray Felton and a rookie named Landry Fields, who were each far better than expected. That was Donnie Walsh's doing. Pretty good compared to his predecessor, who amidst lawsuits, turned a once-great franchise into a joke. That would be Zeke the Sneak. But of course, Dolan, who has a man-crush on Thomas despite all it's cost him, discarded Donnie this past weekend and made the deal. And it's a deal that will add a point or two to the average Knick offensive total ... and probably cost three or four at the defensive end. Net gain? Not!! And I'm not even talking about the inevitable Walsh departure and the seemingly inevitable return of Thomas as GM from his purgatory as a coach of a second-level college basketball team.

As a Raptor fan, I should be thrilled with Dolan's immediate destruction of the Walsh's rebuilt, and still rebuilding, team. The fun of watching Anthony frustrate Stoudemire by taking lots and lots of shots and treating an assist as a disease, will be a regular story on the rumour circuit for the next while. But, like many, I think the NBA needs a Knick team to offset Boston and Miami. And this incarnation of the Knicks is headed for implosion, not competition.

Lastly, there is nothing that can happen to Thomas that hasn't already. Alleged suicide attempt, lost power struggles, embarrassing (or should have been) lawsuits from women he ... made feel uncomfortable, poor results from EVERY team he's ever been involved with, folding a league with a long history that he bought and ran badly, etc. The list goes on and on. As a player, Thomas was a star. As an executive, Thomas has Peter Principled his way to the top an incredible number of times. Outside of a decent job coaching Indiana, he's been an abject failure each time. So, HE's the guy life will have the hardest time catching up to. Karma will have to work overtime to do whatever it has to do to get Thomas his just due, so that we can enjoy a little schadenfreude. Afterall, if what's transpired so far has kept the bad down, what can?

There's some collateral damage to this Tiresome Threesome. Chauncey Billups has to spend the next year and a bit in New York (if he doesn't retire as he once intimated, if he was traded out of Denver). The timing of the end of his contract are going to drive the Deron Williams/Chris Paul to New York rumours into overdrive. Williams is already proclaiming, NO, not me! The first Paul to NY rumour since the trade took about 13 seconds to start making the rounds. Some very productive Knicks this season, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallanari and Felton won't be helping Stoudemire and Fields any more. Even Timofey Mozgov, the KEY (sic) to the deal, will be experiencing a bit of culture shock, moving from the bright lights of NYC to the bright star-lit sky of the mountains. How many of the ex-Knicks are still Nuggets come Friday morning is anybody's guess. A U-Turn back to the tri-state area for Felton and Mozgov is being bruited about. It'll all shake out for the shaken-up teams in the next four days.

After that, the Karma watch is on. Here's hoping schadenfreude makes an appearance.

LIFE: PC Politics Sucks

We're headed for an election. It's not declared as of yet, but I got a call out of the blue from the local Conservative Party today wanting to talk. A curt, "I don't talk politics." ended the phone call, although the political operative was cordial in ending the phone call.

I lied.

I'm mad as hell. Now, I don't actually say to anybody, friends, family or the rest of the population of Canada who I vote for. It can be inferred that I vote Liberal, except I don't always. I spoil ballots more often than not. And I have not ever, ever voted Communist or Green. Beyond that, nobody knows but me.

But for the first time ever, I'm willing to be committal about the vote I will be forced to make by that megomaniacal asshole ensconced in our Prime Minister's office. I AIN'T VOTING PC AND WILL BE VOTING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE. No spoiled ballots. SOMEBODY will get my vote. You money-wasting would-be potentate. You Bush-lite political opportunist. You xenophobic hater. You and your party are bad for Canada and it's time somebody else took their turn at the public trough.

They're polling the ranks. They're polling the non rank and file and they are running political ads on TV.  It's a bloody election campaign in every way but legal definition. It's not enough that they've taken this country from surplus to more than $55B in deficits in five years and have the cajones to crow about our economic might compared to the United States. The myopic PC's see a Liberal house divided around Ignatieff and an NDP party that doesn't even have the unions solidly behind them right now. Now isn't the time for an election, even if it could be somehow run free of charge. But Harper's vision is of a blue country sea to sea.

A simple phone call was enough to radicalize me, the guy who's never voted AGAINST a candidate in his life. Think about that PC pollsters. If it could trigger THAT kind of reaction in me, maybe the MAJORITY OF THIS COUNTRY who didn't vote for your head clown might feel the same way.

At least I hope so. PC's in the minority ... or maybe gone from the political scene completely.

A guy can dream, can't he?

SPORTS: Jose Leads Way to Pay Window

It looks like a mere 65 million dollars, spread out over 5 years, is enough to make Jose Bautista a Blue Jay for most of the rest of this decade. There's an option for a sixth season at the average stipend of $13M. Which means the then 36 year old Bautista will have banked more $80M in his Blue Jay career. And there might still be some gas in the tank even then. Wouldn't be a shock at all if he then added one more contract on top of that and finished his major league career in the uniform of the locals.

Of course, nothing's been officially signed as of the time of the writing of this post, but the finger to the wind test feels good.

I stumped for a contract in this neighbourhood a while back. I was short by a bit, by about $3M a season, but that was before the Washington Nationals gave Jayson Werth a "Match This, Suckers!" contract and Albert Pujols started the "Contract NOW or I test Free Agency next winter" Movement.  But it seems that Alex Anthopoulos has come to the conclusion that a slight over-pay is worth more than a season of Bautista and the two draft picks he'd bring 16 months from now. Obviously, I agree.

Seems strange for Toronto to chortle with glee at getting out from under $81M of the contract owed Vernon Wells one month and then turn around and spend almost the same amount for another player. One with just about the same number of great seasons as Wells--one. But the inevitable comparisons are going to suffer from number overdrive. There is a world of difference between the two men in a place the stat geeks can't quantify. That is in the role of leadership.

Wells was like many stars in Toronto. A quiet, introspective man with a huge heart who led by example. Think Mats Sundin (although he was hampered by a management who saddled him with retreads and never-weres as linemates and figured he didn't deserve any more shifts than the fourth-line centres. IDIOTS) and, dare I say it after his moronic kiss-off to the Toronto fans last night, Chris Bosh. Sure, there were rare occasions when Mats would step out of HIS own shadow and say something to somebody else, and we all have seen the tape of the one time Bosh blew up at Andrea Bargnani in a team huddle. But, for the most part, Sundin and Bosh played hard and just expected the rest to at least try just as hard, if not to accomplish what they could with their superior talent. There must be something in the water here in Toronto, because all of our best players in various sports tend to shrink from the spotlight, Bosh being the one noticeable exception away from the court. And we all know now, he's just another guy.

I'm not sure Bautista will gravitate to the spotlight because he's always been overshadowed by Wells and other longer-term Jays during his two and a bit years with the club. Until September 2009, there really wasn't any reason to trundle along to his stall in the post-game scrum. Since then ...

EVERY story. EVERY thing I've heard. For public consumption and not. All items lead to one very inescapable conclusion. Bautista is the leader of the team. He's very obviously the leader of the growing Latin contingent. But even the non-Latinos seem happy to have him out front and leading them. You could lay a large-sized bet that Aaron Hill is happy. Otherwise, the story might have been the will they/won't they story of the Blue Jays picking up his option(s) before the end of spring training. Oh, that question still exists, but the focus will be on Bautista. And newly-minted first baseman Adam Lind, like Hill, intent on mounting a comeback of sorts while dealing with other issues (his position change), is a guy perfectly happy to be in the background. For the guys who like the limelight elsewhere (exceptions: Travis Snider and Ricky Romero), Bautista is the perfect screen to hide behind.

Which now brings up the question, is leadership worth $13M a year? No, of course not. But it's the kind of thing that is hard to measure. Does Bautista help in getting the maximum out of players like Yunel Escobar and JP Arencibia? For sure in the first case, probably will in the second case. One's a fellow Dominican, the other is from California. Which Richard Griffin points out is a good measure of the man. Bautista seems equally comfortable with people from the Caribbean and the States. He went to school in Florida. He's well-spoken and seems to have all the charitable inclinations of Wells. And that's saying a lot. On a leadership level, it's hard to describe just how perfect Bautista is for the job, one which he wants badly, to boot.

But fans will only see what goes on, on the field. Yep, he's going to be hard for Bautista to hit 54 homers again in 2011. The question is whether he gets the Barry Bonds treatment or not. Without somebody catching a little fire behind him, the opposition pitchers should throw every pitch at least four feet away from him and hope three induce missing swings or go through the black on the outer edge of the plate. He's a virtual lock to get walked 100 times this coming season. Now, if the Blue Jays can find somebody to make the opposition teams pay for giving Bautista almost free passes at the rate of one a game, then it brings humongous homer totals back into play. Bautista will get 30 because major league pitchers will make at least that number of mistakes this year. I think 44, a nice round number Hank Aaron made famous, is my best guess. And if Lind and/or Hill rediscover their Silver Bat skills, than 50, even 60, are in the discussion. Clarence Gaston's gone, but Bautista's hitting guru Dwayne Murphy is back for one more season of counselling. The best part of all of this is how cerebral Bautista is. His consistency month to month last year was evidence he made re-adjustments as pitchers made adjustments to the fact that this was one dangerous dude at the plate.

Defensively, I was actually surprised Bautista didn't get more mention for a Gold Glove in RF. He didn't make many highlight reel catches, but his arm recorded outs ... important outs. And it kept some other runs from scoring because he induced bases-gluing fear in more runners. It'd be great if he could play the position this year and beyond. But until the team gets a bona fide third-sacker (and no, Edwin Encarnacion doesn't qualify unless the word emergency is in play), Bautista will be a third baseman this year. A leader plays where the team needs him to play. And right now, that's 3B. A year from now? Brett Lawrie or somebody who comes to town next winter will be at the hot corner. And then Bautista can go back to scaring the living bejeebers out of opponents in RF.

I have never talked to the man, just to people who have. They liked Wells. They REALLY, REALLY like Bautista. And in these days of schadenfreude, it's a miracle ANYBODY's happy to hear about anybody else cashing the contract lottery. But in this case, one and all approve.

And so do I.

SPORTS: Bosh And His Friends Come To Town

Tonight's the night that Chris Bosh comes back to town with the Miami Hated Heat for a 'showdown' with the Toronto Raptors. And he brings with him a bag of mixed feelings, a trait shared by a lot of fans.

He's going to get booed hard. And long. Vince Carter-despising long. And, if I was in attendance, I'd probably give it a good belch of air during the introductions and the first time he touched the ball. Then I'd stop. I'd have vented my anger at the WAY Bosh departed. And really, that's all Toronto fans have to complain about.

The fact is that I believe the birth of this version of the Hated Heat was hatched at the last Olympics and was a done deal, despite remonstrations otherwise by both Bosh and LeBron James, the head villain. I honestly would have preferred a "no comment" then all of the hope-instilling banter Bosh produced all last year as he was headed out the door. "Wanting to be THE Man," was a constant refrain. Then he took the butler's job in Miami. Sorry, but playing clean up guy after James and Dwyane Wade get all of theirs isn't something THE Man aspires to do. And shame on all three of them for thinking they couldn't win without more stars than any team outside of Boston has. It showed a weakness in all of their characters.

And that weakness manifested itself to a greater degree with Bosh than I thought it would. He's run off at the mouth explaining why he left Toronto and the excuses have bordered on the surreal. Lack of ESPN at his condo was one that was cited. The smell of the city was another. Canada was, like another country, afterall. This from an almost university-educated man. Where once I thought of Bosh as a nice guy, thoughtful and possessed of an indomitable will to be the best player in the NBA, if willing to acknowledge it might be a futile quest, I no longer operate under that delusion. He wants to be liked and said things that he thought would result in that. He set himself up for his fall from Toronto's graces.

Bosh is a big athletic young guy who wants to win and jumped at an opportunity that some called a sure bet to result in five titles over the next six years. He gave up his ideals for that assurance and even gave up some money. And he gave up the chance to be a hero to fans here in Toronto or where ever else in the NBA he went to be THE Man. I suspect that he's guilty by association with James, who's turn from hero to heel is largely complete. So even fans outside of Toronto don't respect the butler of the team a heck of a lot either.

Which is too bad. We have too few sporting heroes here and everywhere. That's our loss. And it'll probably mean a Toronto loss tonight too. So, I'll softly boo him a couple of times and cheer when any Raptor outdoes him on the floor of battle. But I won't want somebody to plant him six rows deep when he goes up for a shot. I don't hope he breaks a leg, and that's unusual because of my normal practice for wishing exactly that on the boneheads of the NBA (Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Carmelo Anthony, The West Coast Smirk, The East Coast Smirk, etc.).

After tonight, the energy will all be gone. Chris Bosh will be just one more member of the Hated Heat, a uniform to jeer and hope losses miraculously appear on their ledger. A team that I hope lose to the otherwise detestable Celtics, the Lakers and any other foe they play.

For me, Bosh won't be worth getting worked up for. He's just another guy.

HARDWARE: Patience Might Be Coming To An End

But not because my native lack of patience is rising to the fore. In fact, I WILL wait patiently for a little while longer. But not much longer. Cuz the tablet of my dreams will soon be coming to the Castle of Confusion to join my merry little band of computers.

The tablet wars reached another level with the Mobile World Congress over in Barcelona the past week. I'm starting to think that there is a winner and it's name is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The folks at CarryPad.com and engadget.com seem to be the go-to guys on tablets these days and I was amused at one review of the 10.1 earlier this week. The things the reviewer loved about the pad, I'm pretty sure I'll love too. Things like light weight, great screen, grippy back surface, pure Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). The things the reviewer was dubious about, are things that'll make me almost as happy. Cheap plasticy back? Did I mention light weight and easy to grip? Plain Honeycomb, making it hard to differentiate between it and the other tablets running plain unadorned Honeycomb? Means less trashing of the crapware that comes with some devices, then doesn't it? No stand like some of the 7in tablets have? Well, I have a stand that will fit it. Less than nine hours of battery life? Other than March Madness, I won't be staring it for anything like that long. And while watching the college hoops extravaganza, I will be tethered to a wall socket. So, not so much of a problem. In fact, I couldn't find a thing in either their pro OR con list that had me debating the merits of the 10.1. IT IS THE TABLET I WANT TO BUY.




Heck, even the well known issues with Samsung not updating their android versions on their phones promptly (or at all) isn't an issue. I want the WiFi version. Plus, I'm betting Google's iron hand on having unadulterated Honeycomb out of the box means updates won't be an issue at all. Actually, I'm pretty happy Google's taking away some of the artsy-fartsy interface issues. I trust Google about as much as anybody in the computer business these days. Which is, not much, but more than most.

Now, having said that, I still don't know when it will be available for me to purchase. March is barely possible, but I'm not holding my breath. Though, I am heartened by the fact that Samsung got the Galaxy Tab 7in tablet out last year, it being the only realistic Apple iPad contender that saw the light over here in 2010. Too small for my needs, but it existed, whereas just about everybody else was producing promises of 'Next Year,' to anybody who wanted a tablet but didn't want Apple's interference in their lives. Like me. And Apple's understandable, but still odious, cash grab of a 30 per cent vig on just about everything under their purview makes my decision to go ABA (Anything But Apple) is a long-term smart decision.


I'm not going to lie about the fact that the Viewsonic Viewpad has a lot of interest because of it's ability to run Windows PLUS Android. Might be a bit heavy for the familiarity. And I've watched the development of the Adam from NotionInk almost from conception. If it's supply wasn't already bought up until Spring, I might already own one. Motorola was first out of the gate with Honeycomb, but that weight might be a killer. Still, in a desert of choices, the water bringer's flaws get overlooked. And everybody raved about the User Experience with the initial Xoom demos.

Right now, if push came to shove, I'd rate the chances of owning any particular tablet like this:
[51%] Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
[18%] NotionInk Adam 
[14%] Viewsonic Viewpad 10 Pro         
[09%] Motorola Xoom           
[08%] Other               
[00%] Apple iPad II

The best thing about Patience? Some times it pays off.

LIFE: And The Election Race Is ON!

Down south of the border, Americans were treated to a variety of good (and some not so good) commercials during last night's Super Bowl. Here in Canada? We got a bunch of propagandist claptrap from the Conservative Party and/or the Government of Canada touting the accomplishments (sic) of head honcho Stevie Harper and the downfalls of liberal head Mike Ignatieff.

Overlooking the fact that most of the anti-Ignatieff commercials were years old, and the outright brazenness of attaching Harper to ANY good news in Canada over the last four years, the mere existence of this crap on the air portends a coming election. SURE we have election laws in this country preventing such advertising outside of the election process window. But that doesn't apply if we aren't actually IN an election at this precise point in time. The same behaviour evidenced itself just before Harper called a surprise election last time ... you know, the one he passed a law against. Schmuck.

So, we have an election this year. Don't know when ... Harper knows. There's no reason for the wasteful expense of an election, unless you are a power-mad dictator wannabe who senses the coffers of the Liberal and NDP parties approximates that of the Green Party. Why NOT try to grab the brass ring of majority power and then do everything short of ... well ... I was about to say illegal means, but I'm not sure Harper understands a boundary exists there ... to blot the Liberals and NDP parties out of existence. There are many ways to dream one's self to sleep at night. Harper's is to think happy thoughts about a one-party country. Schmuck.

I would have thought the CRTC decision to add millions, if not BILLIONS, to the bottom lines of Bell and Rogers (and to a lesser extent, Shaw and Cogeco) at the expense of the vote-casters, might have been Harper's Waterloo. The other parties, including the Parti Quebecois, seemed poised to get together and drive a stake through Harper's government if that decision wasn't over-turned by the minority of government officials who have sold their sold to Harper's Conservative junta. But the finger-to-the-wind test proved decisive and it was all but announced that the CRTC's bought and paid for decision is going to be unbought. Although the reversal is far from a fact, the sixty-day grace period being extended by the CRTC is really a timeout to come up with a reason to reverse the decision, as foolish a decision as has been made in politics in recent memory. You can skim SOME money from all the people with only isolated roars of outrage. Try stealing it all and some people are going to get ornery enough to rally the rest.

Politics is always a test of how much lying we'll take from who. You lie to get elected and then you lie to the people that you are doing things in their best interests. Doesn't matter who's in. Some are just bolder in their screwing of the people.

As always, I pine for minority government because it does give some control over the worst wretched excesses of majority government. Had the Harperites actually been in total control this past week, the CRTC would have been rammed down our throats, Bell's profits uber alles. This is why, come whenever Harper decides he has the greatest political advantage and calls the snap election, we must band together and vote in another minority government. Technically, I'd like the Liberals to be the head of the government because this is a liberal nation, a country where we want to help everybody and exclude none. Problem is, the Libs are just as power-crazy in some ways as the Cons and absolute power corrupts.

The election is coming. The election ads without an election say so.

HARDWARE: Patience

I don't NEED a tablet computer. Heck, I'll be spending too much time this month setting up Quincy, my new nifty main desktop computer to replace Popeye (who gets the secondary job of doing backups and other housekeeping chores on my network .. replacing Nuklon ... which seems headed to become a media server down beside the big TV in the living room). That replacement process and my ongoing development work for the various clients shouldn't leave much time for a tablet computer. So I don't NEED a tablet computer.

But I want one.

The fact is that my current choices in tablet computers are a 10 inch iPad Classic, a 7 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab and taking a chance on getting something out of the Far East through Customs. And frankly, given how difficult it was just get some cables (and the currently ON HOLD iWin Twin USB drive) past the keepers of the border and into my hands, my desire in that area is pretty slim.

So, why not the iPad? Besides not wanting iTunes on my computer and not wanting Steve Jobs telling me what I can or can't have, I'm really worried about the Apple grab at anything and everything that goes through the various reading apps on the iPad. While GigaOM finds the grab understandable and smart to a degree, I think Apple's desire to get a 30 percent cut from any money passing through it's device is going eventually lead to a fight back from the software vendors. Sony and The New York Times howled earlier this week, possibly prematurely, and there will be others. The magazine app vendors have already been grumbling. Well, CUSTOMERS have been doing the grumbling that caused the vendors to grumble.

The the sword of Damocles that iPad holds to hold these vendors in check is exclusivity. Right now, the iPad is it. Really. So vendors bend to Apple's will. A year from now, the vendors WILL have the other-source resources to tell Apple 'NO!' Will political realities redraw the vendor-Apple relationship at that point? Possibly. Over Steve Jobs' absent body. I'm not willing to take that chance and buy into Apple. And that's made even more practical by the fact that we are at the end of the life-cycle for the iPad Classic. The iPad2 will be out within weeks and will be better and lighter and equipped with two cameras and cheaper. Oops, not the last one. Apple never spares early adopters' wallets. Nope. It won't be cheaper. And even cheaper iPad Classics won't be cheap enough for me for the earlier stated reasons.

Samsung can virtually do no wrong with me. I'm even smiling through having a bum monitor from them. Why? because Samsung's had the best price/performance ratio on hardware for awhile now. They've tried to position themselves as a upscale LG, fighting Sony on the quality front for market share. In a blind test, I'd take the Samsung over most other brands in most categories. But there's something going on in the mobile phone/tablet area that has Samsung stumbling.

First, there are all kinds of issues with Samsung phones relating to versions of Android and slow, if ever, upgrades to newer versions. Then, Samsung says they've sold 2M tabs ... to stores, more or less mumbling that last bit just a bit. Actual sales of the Tab are a fraction of that number. A fraction made smaller by a reported return rate that might be as high as 16 percent. Plus the tab is seven inches, barely bigger than my web-surfing booking-reading extraordinaire Kindle. So, no Tab for me.

This IS the month that will see change in the relatively barren tablet field. I'm watching a number of tablets that I think could provide the impetus to land one in my hands. Hopefully in time for March Madness. With a tablet connected to CBS' website for all of the first four rounds of the tournament, I can pick and choose which game to show on it, while having the other two TV's in the room tuned to CBS and to TheScore respectively. I'm more or less forced currently to watch CBS soundless as it usually focuses on one game, while TheScore does hop around to best effect,. However, Tim Micallef hosts that show and his idiot grin and stolen patter are, well ... let's say ... off-putting. Imagine being able to turn his sound off too? And letting me do my OWN game-hopping. All from the comfort of my bed. Ya, that's the plan!

The Adam by India-based NotionInk is my favourite to emerge from the alternatives and find a way to the Castle of Confusion. I've watched it's progress from a bunch of drawings to an actual shipping device and I like what I see. Unfortunately, the current batch is sold out and so is the next batch. And I'm horribly worried we haven't seen a review by an independent third party yet, like Carrypad. But I really do like just about everything I've seen of the device. It uses Android 2.3.

Motorola's Xoom will be the first out with the Android 3.0, code-named Honeycomb, software platform installed. It's the Android system FOR tablets. And Motorola's a pretty solid hardware company. I'm not enthused about an opening price reputed to run closer to a grand than I would like. But, it has to be a contender, if no reason other than it will sport the best in hardware AND the latest Android at the opening bell.

Asus has been a price-point competitor in the smaller laptop (netbook) field for some time now. And Asus makes the motherboards of all my computers. Knowledge and form expertise makes the eeePad something to consider. If it was shipping today, I think I'd order one, reviews unread. The question is, once the competition really lights up, will Asus get lost amongst all the offerings from big companies?

And you know what they say about learning from your mistakes. I'm hoping Samsung gets it right with their 2.0 gen products. I'm still not interested in the 'small' tab. But the next wave of Samsung's tabs will include a 10 incher. That's certainly something to consider. Along the same vein, Dell's followed up their 5 inch Streak with a 7 inch form factor. Getting out a 10 incher would be worth looking at Dell for a solution.

Carly Fiorina made a real effort to destroy HP (and Compaq and ... just about everything she was involved in over the last decade), but I have to admit more than nostalgia has me hoping the WebOS powered Palm tablet will be a contender. Afterall, WebOS is the descendant of the operating system on my still operational and beloved, Sony Clie PDA. The screen snapshots I've seen tend to look more like a blown-up phone screen. But there's a familiarity there that might carry the day.

Lastly, I DO have to pay attention to what Apple does when it announces the iPad2. First, they might just put together such a great hardware package that I would have to consider bending my anti-Apple bias (I remind you that I have a four-digit serial number Apple II in my house. The bias I have is to control-freak level paranoia). I could run iTunes in a virtual machine. And I could jailbreak the iPad to escape Jobs' clutches. Probably. But the main benefit waiting out the iPad2 would be the price pressure it would put on the other devices. Might be worth a savings of a couple hundred bucks when the machines that are out in this first real wave of Android tablets are facing the tsunami of sales the iPad2 will have.

In a perfect world, I would buy a cheap Far East Wi-Fi knockoff running Android 2.3. I would use it to learn the ins and outs of the Android system. It would be light due to inexpensive plastic housing. Since I don't plan to lug it around a lot and it would spend non-productive time in a charging cradle, I could live with eight hours of battery life. I'm also unlikely to watch any HD stuff on it, other than sports, which would be streaming. So, large memory capability isn't all that necessary. I want to read magazines and comic books, do some light web-browsing mostly centered around looking up things. And, on the rare occasions when I go out and head off somewhere I've never been, I wouldn't hate GPS capability. I would accept Google Maps. I don't need it to be a phone, but the occasional use of Google Voice wouldn't hurt. And the outward camera will be undoubtedly better than any that I have in the house. And I take pictures, on the average, about ONE time a year.

I'd get about a year out of that first tab. Then, by replacement time, I would have a panoply of second gen tabs to pick from, at all price points and multiple capability points.

But first? A tab for March. Please. I've been ever so patient.

SPORTS: This And That ... Steve Simmons Style

I wanted to comment at the Toronto Sun on today's Steve Simmons column at the web-site. Turns out, you have to log into Facebook to comment. It's a cheap tactic to drive the Sun's Facebook site numbers. Well, nuts to that.

Steve takes on the lunacy of last man standing at the All-Star Draft, his expectations that the Blue Jays are due for a worse year than last and his hesitation to label Ben Cahoon a Canadian. Here's what I would have said ...

All-Star draft fix. Last six guys (all of whom have to be forwards) go into a bingo machine and get drafted that way. Pay off the last guy standing if you must, but it would reduce the embarrassment factor a whole lot ... Are the Jays throwing it in early this year? A good draft last year, the promise of a great one this June and even after spending big next off-season, a poor 2011 finish would represent a good haul in June 2012. Three top drafts would stock the farms and future Jay teams for a decade ... A rule change for the better in the CFL: Veterans with five years with the same team get Non-Import status, but only for THAT team. If you don't like five, make it seven, or four. Whatever. Keeps familiar names around, which won't hurt.

GM

Had I been able to expand, I might have mentioned I still think the Jays will win into the mid-80's, which actually might NOT be Alex Anthopoulos' plan. Maybe he DOES want to sink into the lower half of the draft in 2012 and send any Type B free agent on to greener (American greenback) pastures. The Jays had a good draft last June, have ten percent of the top 70 or so picks this June and something like that in 2012 would surely make the Jays' farm system the envy of everybody, except Kansas City. To add that third year of bonanza picking, the Jays need a low draft position in the first few rounds, and another round of veterans to peddle or let go at season's end. Hmmmm, a veteran-laden bullpen is an easy source of Type B's. One-and-done contracts to the likes of Edwin Encarnacion and Corey Patterson. Even Aaron Hill's options could result in him moving on in certain circumstances. It's all sort of a worst case scenario when I spent much of a post last week extolling the sunnier view. But I bet the allure of being the draft star for three years running (although Tampa Bay is co-starring this June), has to have a GM dreaming. Plus he has the money to sign draft picks AND a warchest next off-season to build that contender Torontonians want so bad. Imagine having all the 2012 draft picks AND a pennant contender at the same time!!!!

And I really would like to see some landed immigrant rights for guys who get attached to a team in the CFL, but have to move along when somebody younger and, more importantly, cheaper comes along to replace them. It doesn't happen to Canadians, the gold standard of any CFL franchise. But every ex-pat Yank has to spend a lot of time looking over their shoulder. At a certain point in time, doesn't everybody deserve the right to stay in the city they've represented for so long? I mean, Pinball Clemons is a Canadian by choice. And that makes him better in my opinion than an awful lot of 'citizens' who are Canadians by accident of birth. There's a flow of young Canadians into the CFL because of controls that are needed. Unfortunately, there's also a talent deficit in some of those Canadians. If each city could put two or three more nouveau Canadien into their line-ups, maybe some of the kids could spend more time on the practice roster rather than making mistakes in games on TV. And with Ottawa (and who knows, maybe Nova Scotia or Quebec City) joining the CFL this decade, maybe it's time to up the number of Canadians available to fulfill those quotas. But I repeat, this revisiting of an old rule, ONLY applies to once city where the player has been a long-time veteran. If he exercises his free agent rights to move along, he does so as an American. And he has to restart anew building up his local exception rights.

HARDWARE: Keyboards And The Letter N

I was reading a column by a noted SF writer who shall remain nameless because he's so right wing and idiotic about it, I feel constrained against giving him any publicity whatsoever. Plus, I'm more than a little ashamed of myself for reading his column during my Saturday stroll through websites I only visit once a week.

This week, he wrote about keyboards and his own family's keyboarding history. His mother was a typing speed demon on the typewriters I first met in high school and used for the first decade of my professional career (a sportswriting job). Like he, I earned my keep on a relic that would invoke spasms of laughter if AJ or Angela ever saw it. I really did love my old Underwood, which was old when Bramalea was first founded. I'd guess it was close to 30 years old when I used it in the late seventies and early eighties. I grabbed it as the one gift I really, really wanted when I left The Guardian. And I even used it for awhile post-newspaper life. But even then, I was into computers and had spent an ungawdly amount for an early Apple. When I finally got a shift-key adapter for the Apple (ah hunh, it only had capital keys initially) and a printer (another two grand for an early Epson dot-matrix), I was mostly done with using the typewriter.

I eventually sent it along with some other typewriters I cudgeled from friends, with a missionary headed for Costa Rica. Even got a letter from the young girl who ended up with mine.

I've railed against the development and placement of the various non-character keys on the keyboard. While I wasn't an IBM Selectric aficionado, the decision to NOT use its keyboard layout for the IBM computer that finally came out and overtook the desktop-computing world ranks as one of the most idiotic decisions ever foisted upon the working world. It wasn't the WORST decision ever. That one came with the iteration of the IBM PC that decided to move the function keys from the left-side of the keyboard to the top row, beyond the easy reach of people with normal sized hands. (or smaller ...). THAT was the WORST DESIGN DECISION EVER!! People who bring up the chiclet keyboard on the IBM PCjr are johnny-come-latelies with no standing. If you never used a keyboard with the function keys in the left place, then you are barred from commenting. You don't know what you're missing.

However, over the years, my supply of 88-key keyboards with the function keys placed correctly and the control key atop the shift key, with the alt key below it (that's right, the CAP SHIFT KEY WAS OUT OF THE WAY SO THAT YOU COULDN'T INADVERTENTLY START TYPING EVERYTHING IN CAPS, like that), eventually wore out and become unusable. I was forced to start buying, and buying and buying new keyboards. Because of another feature from user hell.

Embossed keys. It seems just about every keyboard maker saves the pennies and just inks on the character identifications. And for some reason, over the years, that means I have accumulated a spare room full of keyboards with the letter N missing. Or so unreadable as to be missing for all intents and purposes. The M key suffers to a certain degree too. But it mostly survives my ham-handed pecking. I am a ten-fingered touch typist. And I don't exactly rest my digits on N or M. Yet time and time again, the N goes the way of the dodo bird. It's a VERY common letter, but so are the vowels and they don't disappear. I tend to hover over the keys, so the so-called home row isn't in the process of constant touch. It's just the N. Or rather, it WAS the N.

I recently bought my one-millionth keyboard. It's life expectancy is measured in months. By the time I get used to it, it will be time to change again. It's a fact of life. An unexplainable fact of life.

SPORTS: My Gretzky Story

With Wayne Gretzky, one of the two greatest hockey players who ever laced on the skates, stories are aplenty. Many of them were told yesterday on the occasion of the Great One's 50th birthday. So, I'm a day late with this story and best wishes for Gretz as he heads into his second half-century.

Gretzky was hardly unknown in these parts as he was growing up. He was a regular participant in the Brampton Atom Lions Hockey Tournament from the time he was five (purely a part-timer) until he aged out of the tournament five years later. He was an impact player for the Brantford Steelers for the last three years. He was worth the price of admission for a young lad to head over to the other side of town (I was a Bramalea brat).

Along about that time, Bramalea got a junior B team, the Blues. It was run by a bunch of people I knew, including Gerry Henderson, who was dad to one of my good friends, John. The Blues were inordinately successful almost immediately, winning a provincial championship and coming close a second time during my rookie year of cub reporting for the Brampton/Bramalea Guardian. That was the night of infamy when the Blues played Bert Tenpleton's Hamilton Red Wings and won the only game of the Ontario finals in a brawl-filled night that required more than a few police cars and resulted in the McMurtry Commission's investigation of violence in hockey. The Blues pulled out (the right thing to do), rather than continue participating in a series where it was hard to differentiate the animals on the ice wearing Hamilton uniforms and the goons in the stands. They all had that look...

At any rate, the Blues were a proud franchise already when Gretzky moved to Toronto to play with the Toronto Young Nats. Anticipation was high at Victoria Park Arena, just up the street from my house, as the Blues got ready for Gretzky's first visit to town wearing the red and white of the Nats. Many of the players on the Blues were classmates or brothers of classmates. The club was under new management because of suspensions dating back to the game in North York against Hamilton. But the pride was still there. No snot-nosed slip of a superstar in the making was going to come into Bramalea and embarrass the home team.

Three hours later, the snot-nosed slip of a future superstar had done exactly that. Bob McLeod summed it up best, when I carelessly asked him why he hadn't crushed Gretzky like he'd done so many other opposition players. The rock-hard defenceman, who was an helacious body-checker despite being a tad too slow to think of a hockey career past Junior B, looked at me like I was dumb as a rock. "I TRIED to hit the little #*)(#$*. We ALL did!"

That was the real story behind Gretzky. The vision. With the single exception of a night in Toronto when he got clocked by Billy McCreary, Gretzky demonstrated an uncanny spidey-sense. He was just never there at the moment of impact. He was elsewhere, with the puck, getting ready to make a fool of some other player. Whether he subsequently passed or shot, he was almost always going to generate a scoring chance.

And there was just about nothing Bob McLeod or any of a generation of other hockey players could do about it.

Gretzky and the Nats (later the Seneca Nats), personally escorted the Blues out of the playoffs in every year he remained in Junior B. I got a chance to see, and appreciate, the snot-nosed slip of a superstar and that made the losses a little easier to take.

Happy Birthday, Wayne.

SPORTS: Let The Cackling Stop

Vernon Wells is gone and some idiots have hit the web, all demonstrating a complete and utter ignorance that brings shame to Toronto Blue Jay fandom. The common rant, replete with spelling errors, is that Wells was an overpaid bum, usually with a bunch of other scathing innuendo thrown in for bad measure.

Here's a fact. Vernon Wells has been fairly well underpaid in his Blue Jay career. I'd cite numbers, but most of the bozos posting all over the place are incapable of doing math. The many times cited 20+ Million yearly contracts only NOW start to show up in Wells' bank account(s). He took less for the first few years of the contract extension he signed in 2007 in order to afford Ricciardi a chance to buy a contender around him, that would coelesce into a perennial contender by the time the Jays were going to have to cut seven-figure checks twice a month.

Another fact? Vernon Wells happens to be one of those guys who you wouldn't mind your little Johnies (and maybe even Jills) throwing a little hero-worship at. He's been giving back to the community for years in all kinds of ways. A sort of anti-Charles Barkley if you will, in style AND substance.

Dumping on Vernon Wells is plain ignorant. He earned his money here in Toronto, and then some.

All of that said, what Toronto Blue Jay fan can't like this trade on its baseball merits. Wells WAS about to become vastly over-paid through a combination of age, injury and Ricciardi's idiotic largesse. Afterall, it was contracts like Wells' that gave birth to calling dumb contracts 'Ricciardis.' Wells said yes to the EXTENSION. And who among us wouldn't have? (Yes, I'm aware Godfrey had a hand in this Ricciardi too. But a GM with pride who disagreed with the contract would have resigned. Ricciardi cashed Blue Jay cheques to the bitter (for fans) end). The money no longer ticketed to Wells will bring good to great upgrades as early as next year. While next year's free agent crop doesn't exactly glow right now, time has a habit of improving vision as objects of lust come into clearer view.

Mike Napoli has a chance to be a very good Blue Jay. He'll be the third catcher (or more, if JP Arencibia proves to be a AAAA type), letting new manager John Farrell occasionally pinch run for Arencibia or Jose Molina without fear of running out of catchers. He can also split time with Adam Lind at 1B/DH, spending more time on the field if Lind runs into problems. His acquisition makes Edwin Encarnacion a bench player, which means the couple of million signed there might be a wash. But I've always wondered it Encarnacion might actually be a guy who runs with a chance at some point. He's still youngish and I think there's still a chance. I had HIM as my breakout guy last year, with a small nod to Jose Bautista's chances. Still time. And at least he gives the team a backup 3B, allowing Johnny Mac to concentrate on the middle of the diamond.

Juan Rivera is a big-league outfielder, and a good one just two years ago. If he repeats 2009, the trade turns into something really, really great for the Jays. If he repeats last year, well, his $5.5M comes off the books at the end of the year and he can watch Encarnacion play third while Bautista goes back to right field. Something in the middle can be expected. But a Jays' fan can be forgiven optimism. Rivera seems to play well in contract years.

And that's part of what makes this trade grow in expectations as the year passes. At the end of it, Napoli and Rivera could very well be Type B Free Agents. And Type A is not out of the question, after Napoli comes to the Rogers Centre for 81+ games. Alex Anthopoulos will offer arbitration and the Jays will reap benefits come draft time in 2012. That's who he is. And that's how the Jays will become relevent in the Big East of the AL, where they play in the same sandbox as the free-spending Yankees and Red Sox. Call it the Tampa Bay Plan. And, as long as AA doesn't settle for safe backup infielders and back of the rotation starters from college (like his mypoic predecessor), the plan has a distinct chance of working.

In the meantime, Toronto does have an interesting conundrum. The starting outfield of Snider, Rajai Davis and Rivera is scary defensively. The club needs to think of acquiring an actual flyhawk to cover the Wells-to-Anthony Gose transition years. I fear Davis isn't the guy. But he will be, all of this year as the Jays go into full-blown tryout mode. Which might mean a step back in the win column. But it's important to know which pieces are going to back in 2012, to be combined with some newly-bought Jays to take a run at making the playoffs for the first time in three decades.

So, the Jays will field a starting lineup that will have Davis leading off, followed by Aaron Hill, Bautista, Napoli, Lind, Snider, Rivera, Arencibia and Yunel Escobar. The offensive bench will include Johnny McDonald, Molina, Encarnacion and likely Corey Patterson. How will that offence stack up against last year's bombers? Wells is gone, but Napoli rates to equal his homer total. Lyle Overbay is gone, but it has to be assumed that both Lind and Hill have bounce back years (They WERE Silver Slugger winners in 2009). Rivera seems like an upgrade over Freddie Lewis power-wise. The only decline will probably be at catcher where Arencibia will be hard-pressed to match John Buck's all-star numbers a year ago. But, if the lone remaining JP connected with the Jays DOES stumble, Napoli at backstop and Encarnacion at DH means that power deficit reverses. And lastly, I'm in the 'Bautista's for real' camp. I see a slight dimunation in his power numbers, not a dramatic dive from 54 down to the 30 area.

With about the same power potential, some improvements and/or reversion to past batting skills from the average standpoint of view and a manager willing to play small ball a little more, the Jays might very exceed last year's offensive numbers. Farrell's in charge of combining with Bruce Walton and Pat Hentgen to get the same kind of bullpen performance (which was slightly less than good last year) and some improvement out of the kiddie korps on the pitching mound. IF all that happens, the Jays are a mid-to-high 80's win team. But that's secondary to the questions 2011 will answer.

Is Snider an illusion or on the verge of breaking out? Is Davis the bridge to Gose or 2012's fourth outfielder? Can Rivera became a Type B Free Agent? Is Bautista an illusion or on the verge of a long-term Blue Jay career with a big contract go with that? Is Escobar the guy everybody thinks he is, or the same guy who disappointed everybody for the first two months in Atlanta and the last month in Toronto last year? Can Hill bounce back? And is Hill the 2B or 3B of the future? Can Lind bounce back AND learn to play 1B? Can  Napoli find enough at bats to make fans forget Wells? And can Napoli get enough time at catcher to qualify there and become a Type B Free Agent, or daresay a Type A? Is Arencibia a big leaguer or do the Jays have to await the arrival of Travis D'Arnaud? Can Encarnacion tap that offensive power potential if not burdened with playing 3B regularly? If any of the various corner infielders, DH's or corner outfielders falter, can uber-offensive prospect Brett Lawrie beat a path to major league stardom?

That's a LOT of questions that need answering on the offensive side of the slate. A series of positive answers would make the Blue Jays a contender a year early, with LOTS of money to spend come July. But we all know some of those answers won't come out in Toronto's favour. I've never been a Snider fan. Despite Don Wakamatsu (and the titleless coach, Molina), I fear for the catching, And the defence, on the whole, is a major step down from last year. I think Toronto will miss Overbay more than they realize, The bench is a little thin. But no Clarence Gaston while keeping Dwayne Murphy is a plus. No allegiance to a set line up, no matter how poorly some Gaston favourites are playing is a plus. It's hard NOT to be optimistic.

And when you think of the extra 75 million bucks Toronto had budgeted for and now finds free to spend in other ways, the future's so bright, AA has to wear shades.

SOFTWARE: Surprise, I'm Sticking With Firefox 3.6

I tried, I really, really tried. But I just can't commit to using Google Chrome as my main web browser. I have a fully tricked out Chrome 8 working and portable test versions of Chrome 9 and Chrome 10. But there is just TOO much missing to make me switch. And as for Firefox 4, coming out next month, the answer is nooooooo.

Let's figure out why I'm not making the switch to FF4. First, if I wanted a reasonable facsimile of Chrome, why wouldn't I just use the original? The design decisions to slavishly imitate the Chrome interface means I don't have much of a choice. FF4 is really Chrome with a sidebar of bookmarks. Now, that happens to fix a particular itch that I have with Chrome, the lack of a sidebar of bookmarks, but it sure isn't a deciding factor in making Mozilla's implementation of the information-less Chrome interface any better.

FF4 got rid of the status bar, assuming all we peons did with it was watch load times and which links hovering over a link would lead us to. Ahhh, NO! My status bar has weather, reminders and status indicators for 15 various extensions. And load times and link info. Taking that away was arrogance. And, although Status 4 Evar returns a LOT of that capability back, it doesn't enforce a consistent uniformity on the placement of items. It's sort of a first come, first serve basis, most of the time. Not good enough, but at least a kludge against designer foul-up.

Admittedly, FF3.6 is getting long in the tooth and is more resource hungry and slower than any of the Chrome versions or FF4 will be. I SHOULD like faster. But when I ran Chrome and exposed it to my mass load folders of bookmarks, I discovered that the savings time-wise was less than a half-second PER tab. Loading 119 tabs in all was about 39 seconds faster in Chrome. Daily variations and time of the day issues might have made that difference five or seconds faster (or slower). So, the speed pickup wasn't worth it. Chrome loaded everything but about six tabs in my daily commenters group. Not surprisingly, it loaded GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader and Google News, which often time out during my mass load in FF 3.6. But like I said, it seemed like Chrome just substituted a half-dozen other sites to force me into clicking re-load. FF4 was only slightly faster than FF 3.6, but then again, it's still in beta. All together, speed is NOT a reason to switch, at least for me. Resources? I have 4G of memory in Popeye and will have 12G in Quincy. So, the resource issue is a non-issue for me.

Security isn't the anti-Chrome factor it once was. Chrome DOES have noscript. Well, a clone of it. And that means you can avoid drive-by script infections. But, and here's a but that really, really hurts, making those changes on the fly is a very destructive act, if you happen to have, oh, say, a Blog entry in progress when you change the settings. Settings changed and everything gets wiped out. ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! And yes, I am RE-writing this blog entry in FF 3.6 after losing an earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning version that I started in Chrome.

On the other hand, there are things I like a lot, and Chrome doesn't have versions of those things yet. I like in-place picture zooming. I like right-clicking and picking which folder to save a picture too. I like being able to nuke page elements in an everything selected or everything BUT selected manner. I can duplicate a fair bit of that thanks to Printliminator in Chrome, but there are times where NukeAnythingEnhanced in Firefox is just a better choice. I LIKE having a close button at the end of the tab row and a go button in the URL box. Yes, there can be a close button in Chrome, but it goes on the upper URL box row. And the go button is reload button. To the LEFT of the URL.  Niggles and nits? Sure. But I like comfort and familiarity. Not so nitty is Chrome's inability to session save with doing it manually first. I use Firefox's ability to save sessions automatically and I get more use out of that feature after crashes than I would like. It's comforting to have 40 tabs open, just close FF, restart it and have the option to have those 40 tabs back.

Making Chrome cover up the lack of a sidebar requires running Chrome across most of a 2000 pixel wide screen. That results in an amusing situation. Some sites run their content in the middle of the screen. Some run it flush left. Go from one tab to the next and you can feel like a tennis match spectator. Uncomfortable.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Chrome for some things. And surprisingly, it isn't for interfacing with the Google tools that are an increasingly larger share of my on-life work. I use it for videos. I use it for CNet and for some of the Revision3 offerings. I haven't turned off auto-play in Chrome and, although videos won't keep playing at full monitor size if you insist on working on another window on another monitor (Except for YouTube and Vimeo), it does a good job of playing any videos I take it too. I have a lot of auto-play turned off in FF. There are better auto-paging features (which work MOST of the time). It's also nice that adding extensions doesn't require a reboot all the time. In fact, most of the time it doesn't, allowing for testing things out. But there ARE a few here and there that behave like Firefox. Lastly, scrolling is VERY, VERY smooth in Chrome.

The Pros-Cons list in switching to Chrome is not even close. It's Firefox by a mile. And that means FF 3.6. FF4 has its own issues, even with general release just a few weeks away. A LOT of the extensions I swear by are not ready for the major update. And a couple, TAB MIX PLUS I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU, seem unlikely to make the update for the update. That's really troubling. Really, REALLY troubling. So, I'm going to do what I mostly always do. Let the early adopters have all the fun, while I hang back and await for the first major fix to the new release. At least. I figure I'll be adopting either Firefox 4.1 or Chrome 13 about a year from now. Or more likely, TWO years from now.

After all, I'm writing this on a computer running Windows XP SP3.

SPORTS: The Logo STILL Stinks!

One of the last vestiges of the Ricciardi/Godfrey regime of the Toronto Blue Jays is the atrocious logo and those awful, let's do black like everybody else, uniforms. And it's just not me that decries the logo. Jim Caple, the ESPN Page 2 columnist, ran down the logo's in an article at ESPN yesterday. And he has particular scorn for the Jays' logo. Read all about it at ESPN.

Now, I have to say that I agree with most everything he had to say (Giants' over-rating aside). Cartoon(y) bird, a phrase he uses for the Baltimore logo too, is a bit harsh for the beloved old double-blue Jay with the Canadian maple leaf detail. But it's not a corporate monstrosity, as Caple so capably refers to the current incarnation.

Ricciardi is receding into our memories and Godfrey's name elicits a "Who?" in most quarters these days. Isn't it time to bring back finery as a feature of the Blue Jays' uniforms? And I'm not talking about the Red Texas T version of the bird with the Maple Leaf tattoo. Toronto is blue. Double blue most of the time. And admitting the Jays are Canada's team isn't the worst thing ever. So let's give our guys a chance to represent the city they play in. Return us to the days when the logo didn't represent somebody's wet dream of an overly-muscular angry bird. (No insult to the popular game). 

And get rid of the funeral suits. Just regular blue and grey get-ups for out-of-town games, bright whites for home games. And if you have to have a special occasion set of togs, NO BLEEPIN' BLACK uniforms. Go red, go powder blue throwback, but black is NOT a Toronto colour. And the sooner the Jays (and even the Raptors) learn that, maybe we can get back to seeing some winning teams on local TV.

The home team that is.

LIFE: One Last Observation

I continue to be utterly contemptuous of the decision-makers at Molson's and HydroOne that created this idiotic attack on citizens from Hamilton to my backyard and beyond in the middle of winter. The lack of forethought on DOING the transfer of these humongous vats to the Molson's facility in Etobicoke at this time of the year has to rate high on the scale of stupidity run amok. And the inability to keep people informed in a timely manner was shocking. I might have dealt with more morons than normal trying to suggest several ways to do it better. Before finally giving up after developing a headache banging my head against the wall separating us from whatever reality the bozos live in.

All that said, the workers from HydroOne and the Challenger company and the local constabulary did a yeoman's job, at least as far as them moving the vats past my backyard. They did it so quick, I didn't even know they were doing it. Mind you, I didn't camp out on the East side of the house awaiting the procession. But I expected problems and they never materialized. And that's because of some hard work by people who were told it was a four-day job and it's turned into a four-week effort, including two weeks of 9pm-6am shifts in pretty bad weather.

Hosannas to each of them, the grunts that had to make the idiotic decision work. Sure, it went slower than the suits thought. And I'm sure the suits are complaining already. But it's getting done and might even meet the latest hoped for finish time on Sunday. Today's snow storm will probably put paid to that. But they'll probably give it a try.

And given the work I didn't see last night, they might even succeed.

LIFE: Tonight WAS The Night

A month of psychological terror has come to an end. No longer will I wonder if tonight is the night HydroOne, the gawdforsaken travesty of an electrical monopoly will suddenly, and without adequate warning, turn my power off, leaving me without light and warmth. All so Molson's, the brew king, can haul their gigantic overseas-made vats past my backyard while travelling from Hamilton to Etobicoke.

I knew it was going to happen 'early' last night because yesterday morning, the procession of the trucks hauling the vats was parked four blocks away at the corner of Bramalea and Steeles. Having a doctor's appointment in the morning, I went and did a drive-by to see them. Big is always a relative term. I'm a short little dude compared to Shaq O'Neal but I tower over the youngest kid next door. So, when I say these vats are BIG, let me try to put it into perspective. I think, on the truck, they might be taller than my two-story house. Each. And I can understand why they needed at least two-lane (both ways) roads to travel on. Got the picture? As I drove back to my house, I looked at the over-head wires on Bramalea and said to myself, "No way they get through here without cutting the power to let them pass." Actually, it was more of a mutter of outrage, but the feeling was one of pessimism.

Somewhere between 8pm and 10 pm, the trucks would come thundering down the incline at the corner they were stopped at and race down Bramalea's straightaway, headed for Queen St. It would come while the Raptors-Pistons game was on. I expected it to happen in the closing minutes, cuz that's what these twits would do. So, I turned off all the electrical equipment I could, especially the UPS's I've attached to many of them. I left just the newest UPS running, because I wanted to test it in a power outage, especially the "silence the alarm" button. (To me, worth exactly 84.6 percent of the purchase price). I sat watching the game and it managed to finish, with a disappointing loss by Toronto. A HA! The lords of power had futzed up. I got the game in, and turned to reading, to await the inevitable screech of the power going out. I had a reading light for the Kindle eReader. I was fully prepared.

Then the phone rang. And rang again. And again. And yet again. Clients with a problem regarding my Point of Sale software. The problem was fixed. Each phone call included the message that if the line went suddenly dead, it wasn't me, it was them, the meisters of power, HydroOne. Then, one final call. I was, to put it mildly, surprised at how popular I was. Furthermore, the content of the phone call was different. "Did your power go out?" I was asked. No. "Then it's not going out. The vats are all the way to Clark Blvd."

The procession had indeed sneaked past my backyard in record time. AND WITHOUT TURNING OFF MY POWER!!!! The stated possibility of an outage of from one to six hours was nothing more than a boogie monster, meant to raise stress levels, repeated, ad nauseum for the last month. The cretin in charge of public information, the guy who delivered a mailing last week that said it would happen in the Monday to Wednesday time frame ... on Tuesday afternoon .... could stop testing my blood pressure. His clumsy, perpetually wrong, threats are no more.

I was prepared for him to be right. That he proved be completely and utterly wrong in just about everything, should have come as a relief. But it bothered me that the power DIDN'T go off last night. It would have been a stress reliever and I would have turned the darkness a deep shade of blue, listing all of the genetic anomalies I'm sure contribute to the bozo's utter lack of ability to do his job.

But in the end, I just turned off the light and went to sleep.

LIFE: Hmmm, Maybe Monday Night

The Big Move To Alienate Molson's Customers In Ontario (Trademark pending) has started. The out-of-date by the time it arrived communique from the hapless Hydro One information twit(s) arrived Thursday of last week. The move started in Hamilton on Friday evening and is slowing winding it's way through the Golden Horseshoe along Lake Ontario's border, inconveniencing all along its way. Currently, I'm going to be cursing the gods of mead sometime on Monday night/Tuesday morning. But that's a guess. I'm not a civil engineer, an engineer or somehow connected to this project. In other words, uninformed. Yet, somehow, these mental midgets figure I CAN do all the calculations and figure out when to 'protect' myself from the ravages of my monopolistic energy supplier and their companions in compassion-less, Molson's and the moving company.

I'd almost be willing to take up drinking JUST so I could ban Molson's from the house. That's how mad I am. I'm verging on questioning my near half-century of loyalty to the Montreal Canadiens. That's how mad I am. I wonder if somebody will go all right wingnut crazy on the decision-makers and wonder if I would feel any sympathy ... for the crazy. That's how mad I am. But being mad only leads me here to vent. At least I let the doubly-cursed dummies know there are better ways to keep we, the people, better informed. So I posted this comment to their site for collecting such comments:

While it would be easy to launch into an invective-filled rant about the idiocy of an operation that will result in the loss of electricity in the dead of winter for thousands, if not millions of people ... without any recompense, to do so would be the electronic equivalent of spitting into the wind. My main problem all along has been the fact that Hydro One and the Movement team have operated under the delusion that they are keeping the victims of this move updated information-wise.

In fact, the only thing all of us in the impact zone want to know, is when (and ideally for how long), we will be without power. Will we be freezing for one hour, six hours or are our wires so well-placed as to not all affected? Or will we get cold and without the comfort of our favourite TV programs or access to a computer?

Vague "here's where we will start and end" projections don't cut it. And keeping everybody up to date via twitter assumes an awful lot. Twitter is nowhere near as ubiquitous as apparently somebody assumes.

But, given that the move now seems destined to last well into the week, having almost doubled in projected length, there's time to at least partially correct the lack of foresight regarding our needs. What you SHOULD do is to immediately calculate the following night's projected impact zone when you finish up at 6am. Break the impact into halves, thirds, quarters ... whatever granularity you can. Detail APPROXIMATE times of electrical and travel impact in a simple letter and print them out for delivery to the affected homes. Then employ some of the gazillion unemployed willing to do leg work and get those letters out to homes by lunch hour, supper hour at the latest.

A prepared victim is a lot less cranky victim. Yes, I'm talking about an expenditure that I assume won't be small. But on the night that I get a little frost-bite on my nose from a house that's gone without heat for a few hours, I'll find myself wondering if it would have been possible to crank the heat up ten degrees in the knowledge that soon there wouldn't be any, would have been a good idea.

That and wondering why Molson's ever thought this inconveniencing of potential customers wouldn't cost them the sales they hope to gain from these new vats. I know there will never be a bottle of their brew in this house. Ever again.

I'm starting to rant, so I will sign off. But I urge you to forewarn people in a manner that will be useful to them and not rely on these cryptic tweets and a map/guide that seems out of date by the time SOME of us can read it on the internet.

Gary M. Mugford

Is there a chance in hell that they will listen, accept and act on my advice? Nope. Dopes on parade will continue without regard to the citizenry. But I tried. And that makes me feel a little better now.

Won't matter a nonce come Monday night when I can't work on the computer or watch any of the accumulated hours of TV I've been saving for a snowy night ... with power. I'll probably be mumbling myself to sleep uttering a single mantra.

IDIOTS!

LIFE: IDIOTS On Parade!

... in January. Some time.

LIFE: IDIOTS Redux

The letter informing me the transport of Molson's Vats of Infamy would be delayed never came. The notice at Challenger said postponed until further notice. But no fool I, I check the Challenger site daily. I expected a return to this bother. I predicted Christmas Eve as somehow appropriate from these Grinches.

I wasn't far wrong.

Two days ago, Challenger's site warned of the impending movement of the Vats of Infamy starting tomorrow (Friday Dec. 17th). The procession will reach my backyard, resulting in power loss sometime over the next few days, likely Sunday night. I'm guestimating because the #(*$#)(*& at Hydro One won't tell me what their highly-educated Engineers say. Deeper into the throes of winter than we have been in some while, this news is as welcome as a Molson's beverage ever will be in this home. I don't drink the stuff, but, of course, I occasionally like to have refreshments on hand for that rare occasion when I welcome visitors in my home. Ah, Molson's ain't gonna happen. Ever again. Ever. But I digress.

The real interesting sideline take on all this is the magnificent job my local Hydro One company has done on my behalf. Beside bending over for Molson's (graphical image completely intended), Hydro One has completely and utterly futzed up in their duties to me, the customer (there are, reportedly others). I only know about the restart of the Parade for the Powerless because I am paranoid and keep checking a site daily that has NOTHING TO DO with me and my life. The moron (I direct you, once again, to Cyril Kornbluth's famed short story) who is in charge of public information for Hydro One has once again deemed it likely a fortune-teller would magically inform all who are about to be affected by this Poopy Procession that they are about to get seriously cold and probably without Sunday Night Football. The idea others might want to know they are about to go cold turkey hasn't ocurred to him at all.

I'm sure I will see some recompense in the bill. That's the kind of hysteric idiocy some people say when sick and about to get cold. Guilty on both accounts. Did I mention I have been suffering the ravages of my own cooking over the last few days?

A plague on every house involved in this. No, not the houses of my fellow victims. But a Scrooge-like wish for schadenfreude to be visited upon all the $(*@%& who deemed this to be a good idea.

LIFE: IDIOTS!

Molson's, the fine people who own the greatest hockey team in the world, the Montreal Canadiens, have never made a dime off me. I don't drink alcohol. But if I did, then Molson's would never see another dime from me again. Ever. And I'm seriously re-considering my patronage of Les Habitants.

Some night this week, no one who knows is fessing up, Molson's has arranged with Hydro One Brampton to turn off my power. For three, maybe four hours. Just as winter's fury has hit this town. Why? So Molson's can move some big vats from the port of Hamilton down through several municipalities, including my own, to its plant in Etobicoke. They will be coming right down the street that runs along my backyard. Between 9 pm and 6 am. You know, prime time or the coldest time of the night. Or both. Some night. This week.

The original letter from the world class do-nothing PR perp at HOB cited tonight, tomorrow night or the night after. That's right, a no better chance than one in three of guessing which night. As to when on what night? No information given. There are a couple of phone numbers, but the one for Molson's goes immediately to an answer box at the cartage company. Any bets I hear from either Molson OR Challenger Motor Freight? Yeah, didn't think so.

So I called HOB and played "I will transfer you now...." volleyball three times before getting to the original letter writer, who then informed me the whole thing's been delayed a day. Later in the conversation, he opined it might be TWO bleepin' days later. So, in essence, some time this week ... but not tonight.

I asked him to put up a web-page with up-to-date information as to when I will be victimized (there's no compensation for the lost heating, lost power for my computers, etc.). He referred me to the ROUTE map page from the cartage company. We talked across purposes for another couple of minutes. He's sending out a new letter alerting us, the too-poor few to have the route bypass their houses, that everything's been pushed back due to today's inclement weather. He thinks he's doing his job. He's not, but he just doesn't understand that, because, after all, HE DOESN'T LIVE IN THE AFFECTED AREA.

It's times like this that I have to remember that, other than ranting here, there isn't a bleepin' bleepin' bleepin' thing I can do about this. Come some hour some night this week, or maybe next, my UPS's will start blaring away. Maybe it intrudes on the last few minutes of a close basketball game. Maybe it starts JUST AFTER I turn off the lights and start to go to sleep. Regardless of when, my nice warm 72 degrees in the shade all year round house, will start to cool off immediately. "Put on socks, throw another blanket on the bed and tough it out. You're Canadian."

It's easy to inconvenience others and slide on by with a less than heart-felt 'Sorry.' Christmas cheer? No, idiots only have Christmas jeer.

Speaking of idiots, the folks behind this farce might not be the biggest idiots I ran afoul of this week. I haven't been out and driving much these days, but I did so a couple of nights ago. Coming down Bramalea Road towards where I lived, I missed my normal turnoff on Alexandria Gate. There suddenly wasn't any street light denoting where it was and I drove PAST it. So, instead of turning left and then hanging an immediate right onto Autumn Blvd., I kept on going. I had to make the NEXT left hand turn and then LEFT back onto Autumn and come back to my house. Remember, my house backs onto Bramalea Road.

So some common-sense deprived planner decided to get rid of the landmarking street light. Okay. But the idiot had some rationale for the decision. You see, they've installed a new traffic light some 200 feet down Bramalea Road. In fact, this new traffic light is almost right in the middle between the two left-hand turn possibilities. That's right, no T-intersection. No intersection at all. No houses to the right, just a big park expanse with NO FOOTPATHS leading up to Bramalea Road anywhere near these new lights. To the left, just backyards as far as you can see. And there is no path leading FROM Autumn Blvd. to Bramalea between any two of the houses. They are packed together like sardine cans.

This is truly the traffic light to nowhere. There's nowhere to turn, save to turn around. And you don't exactly need a traffic light for that. Put at either of the adjacent T intersections, the lights would be useful and maybe even used. Emplaced in the middle of nowhere by the same bright lights who REMOVED the bleepin' street light, well it makes me wonder if we haven't met the future. The one outlined in Cyril Kornbluth's classic "The Marching Morons."

I have lived long enough to see the future. And the idiots are in charge.