Being a hard-core believer in Newfoundland and Labrador I was very much unimpressed with the article in the online version of the Financial Post entitled Northern Promise: Mining projects spark much-needed Sept-Îles port expansion where the author, Mr. Nicolas Van Praet states that “North America’s biggest primary aluminum smelter — Alouette, its hill-perched electrolytic pots powered by transmission wires stretching from Hydro Quebec’s massive Churchill Falls hydroelectric facility.” Where did he get the idea that Hydro Quebec owns Churchill Falls. Not being very impressed with this statement – which no one in the comments pickup up on – I sent the following email to Mr. Van Praet:
Mr. Van Praet:
In reference to your article Northern Promise: Mining projects spark much-needed Sept-Îles port expansion you state: “…powered by transmission wires stretching from Hydro Quebec’s massive Churchill Falls hydroelectric facility”.
This is factually incorrect. The Churchill Falls hydro facility is owned by the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation (CF(L)Co) which is a subsidiary of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. While Hydro-Quebec has a 34.2% ownership in the Corporation it is not their facility. Although one may argue that they feel that they own it.
Maybe you should consider correcting your article.
Sincerely,
Mike Pelley
I look forward to his response on the issue. Hopefully I will actually get a response.
About Mike Pelley
Let’s see… A little about me…
I’ve been around information technology since 1983 with computers such as DEC Rainbows (weird machine – the standard DOS couldn’t format its own floppy disks – remember them? – and I had to format them on a friend’s IBM PC) to Radio Shack TRS-80 to Apple ][e and Apple //c in the beginning.
I have programmed in 8-bit assembly language on 6502, FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM System/370 (and I still hate JCL), VAX BASIC and COBOL (and a weird and massive WordPerfect 4.0 macro) on DEC VMS (Alpha), C/C++ on Digital Unix (ALPHA), and C/C++, Perl (it may be powerful but I still hate it), PHP on Linux (Red Hat, Centos, Ubuntu, etc.).
I have work with databases such as Digital RDB (later to become Oracle RDB), Oracle DBMS, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL on VAX, Alpha, Sun and Intel.
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn. See http://lnkd.in/nhTRZe
I still think that Digital created some of the best ideas in the world: VAX clustering, DSSI disks (forerunner to SCSI) and the Alpha processor (first commercial 64-bit processor – Red Hat screamed on an Alpha!). DEC just could not seem to be able to give air conditioners away to someone lost in the Sahara Desert!
VMware is one of the best ways to get the most out of an x64 server. And I have tried Oracle VM, Virtual Box and Microsoft Virtual Server.
Outside of that I am a huge military history buff starting in the early 20th century. I love Ford Mustangs (my ’87 Mustang GT was awesome) and if I had the money I would have a Porsche 928S4. If I had a lot of money I would have a Porsche 911 Turbo.
I also play too much AmrA 3 Exile mod. Over 5,000+ hours...
I have a wonderful son, Cameron. I have a long suffering (Do you really need all that computer junk?) wife, Paula. I live in Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador.
