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04/26/2003 Archived Entry: "Busy day in geekly"

Ok, lots to cover! I have about 15 minutes to do this, so I gotta speed-blog.

Woke up this morning and headed down across the border to Bellingham, for the Northwest Linux conference (see previous entry for link). Was a nice trip down, and I headed first to Bellis Fair mall to Sears so I could use the gift cards that we got as wedding presents from Jen's relatives. After searching around I bought a DVD/VHS player (MP3 capable), a ghetto blaster for the bedroom (MP3 capable), a rice cooker, some batteries, and a set of kitchen knives (plus block and cutting board). Pretty decent haul for a small amount of money. I also saw an Akai 1200 DVD player there for quite cheap ($49US), which is what my friend JD has (some versions of it can be made regionless). I'm not sorry we got the DVD/VHS combo though.

Funny thing about that is that we were going on the assumption that our VCR was screwed because it was dropped by yours truly during our move. It may be screwed still, but after buying the DVD/VHS player I discovered that the cable connecting it to the TV had a bent-over centre lead. The VCR might be fine and we've not watched tapes for a couple months because of not checking the cable. This is a warning to you. Never assume it's not something simple and physical. Reminds me that yesterday I did much the same thing in the car...while dropping by the auto parts place I decided to check to see if I could get a bulb to replace the in the interior overhead light. Ripped off the cover, touched the bulb and it lit. Turns out the bulb had just worked its way loose. Always check your connections!

Anyway, after shopping I headed to the conference and met out with JD, Miss G, and a few other geek friends and had a few minutes before Jon "Maddog" Hall's presentation on "Selling Open Source" to chat and eat hotdogs. Unfortunately, the hotdogs took up the time that would have been nice to have to actually be able to get in the room to see the speech. Instead, I wandered around getting various schwag (a couple bumper stickers and a Pogo Linux t-shirt and a Knoppix bootable CDROM linux distro) and buy some stuff (a Tux fleece vest and t-shirt from Computer Gear). Maddog's speech was excellent, from what I could hear at least. Some interesting points...in his estimation pirated software is not free because "you don't get support, you don't get updates, you don't get all the things that buying software gets you. There is a logical leap that I don't agree with there, but for whatever reason pirated software is pretty dumb, for the reasons above; and that if you are going to use something, pay for it. If you don't want to pay for it, don't use it. The one area that I have trouble with my own argument is that there are lots of software packages that companies want you to use, but are prohibitively expensive. In order to use it, you have to learn it, which means you have to have a copy of it, which means you have to either buy it or pirate it. If you can't afford it, you have one option: steal it. Hopefully your piracy ends up allowing you to learn it so that you can get a job using it so you can eventually own a copy. If the software company cracks down on piracy in that case they are likely cutting off their own nose.

After the meeting, a quick beer at Archer's Ale House in Fairview (nice place, hard to find...it's a "basement pub" sort of thing). I had a 'Brutal Bitter', which is definitely both. I liked it, and finished it, but it wouldn't be something I'd order all the time. The first sip is a shock and a half.

I left JD and friends playing 7-player Hearts at the table and headed back. The car needed gas, which I was happy to provide, since it was incredibly cheap there. I spent the equivalent of $12 CAD for an amount that would ordinarily cost me $20 CAD. I noticed that two gas stations across the street from each other had prices varying 4 cents from each other. You would never see this in Canada. There may not be collusion between gasoline companies in the US like there so obviously is in Canada. Check Gastips.com for more info there. It was time for me to put in some fuel treatment for fuel injector cleaning (actually, the first time I have ever done so) and managed to spill it down the side of the car. The bottle says, "If spilled, wash with water IMMEDIATELY", so I did so. Bottled water was all I had. Nothing's too good for my piece of crap Ford Aspire.

Getting hungry by that point so I drove over to Burger King and ordered me a Double Whopper Value Meal. In Canada, that's a whole choice...not other options. In the US though there is that in three parts...Regular, Large, and King. I ordered large, which is a hell of a lot of food. I fed a lot of fries to the seagulls (who were afraid of getting too close to my car) and the crows (who stood on my hood begging. I guess maybe seagulls considered humans potential carnivores. Personally I'd rather eat a crow than a stinking ugly seagull. The red eyes throw me off.

Now here's where I admit I am a dumbass. I left my lights on while I ate and killed my battery. Luckily I drive a standard and can push-start my little car. I pushed it all over the parking lot without any success in getting it started. The reason was that I forgot to turn the damnable key on. A kindly large red-haired man with lots of arm tattoos came out of BK and gave me a hand and got it started fine once he said "make sure the key is on" . I never admitted that it was my own damned fault (note to Jason, who will read this: Yeah, like you've never done it!).

Quick trip to the border after that. Once I explained to the border guy what I had done for the day and assured him that I had no weapons (I didn't think to mention the knives I bought), he gave me a card that said "B15" and told me to go inside. I had to pay GST and PST on the stuff I bought, which is stupid, to be honest. I don't have to pay PST on stuff I buy in Alberta, why the heck should I have to on stuff I buy in a whole 'nother country? And what authority does the Canadian government have to charge GST on stuff I bring in from Washington retailers? Seems to me like "Free Trade" is a sham, or at least it only applies to businesses.

So that's my day...after I got home Jen and I got an ice cream and rented some DVDs at a local shop ($4.56 for 3 DVDs for a week - nice deal, though a small selection). We're settling down to watch them now and I am much later that I intended because of blogging this. I'm outta here, have a good day!

Replies: 6 comments

Regarding software piracy... What you describe (pirating software so that you can learn to use it without buying it first for an exorbitan price) is quite common here on the university campus. Even "student" versions of programs like Matlab, Maple, and the CAD programs that architecture students use are ridiculously expensive. So, as soon as a cracked version appears on the school LAN, word spreads very fast, and soon everyone has it. The companies who make them would do well to make a slightly more affordable version so that one or two students might actually buy it. Posted by Gill @ 04/26/2003 10:50 PM PST

Regarding software piracy... What you describe (pirating software so that you can learn to use it without buying it first for an exorbitan price) is quite common here on the university campus. Even "student" versions of programs like Matlab, Maple, and the CAD programs that architecture students use are ridiculously expensive. So, as soon as a cracked version appears on the school LAN, word spreads very fast, and soon everyone has it. The companies who make them would do well to make a slightly more affordable version so that one or two students might actually buy it. Posted by Gill @ 04/26/2003 10:50 PM PST

Nice day, it seems. Hope Jen'll be going to the next one! (meaning she'll be assimilated by you "blokes", eh?) :+) Posted by adiplomat @ 04/26/2003 11:23 PM PST

I know *I* have never done anything like that. I drive an automatic, so push-starting is right out, anyway. :P Posted by Mario Andretti @ 04/28/2003 05:59 AM PST

You should have stayed and played Hearts. Maybe then JD wouldn't have won! :) Posted by SilverStr @ 04/28/2003 03:04 PM PST