I just read on CBC.ca and simultaneously heard on CBC Radio 1 that Art Linkletter has died at the age of 97. I can remember as a kid listening to rebroadcasts of his shows on the radio as me and dad ate breakfast. They just ran a clip that goes:
Mr. Linkletter: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Kid: A bus driver or a pilot.
Mr. Linkletter: What would you do if you were flying a big plane and all four engines stopped?
Kid: I’d say “Our father, who art in heaven…”
Funny!
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Bell Appeals CRTC Decision To Bill By Amount Downloaded
I just read on CBC that Bell is appealing the CRTC’s decision that Bell had to start charging ALL of its customers by the amount they download per month before they can start charging in this way to their wholesale customers. From the CBC site:
The company is disputing the regulator’s requirement that it move all of its retail customers off unlimited download plans before it can implement so called usage-based-billing on its wholesale customers, which are typically smaller companies that rent portions of Bell’s network in order to sell their own internet services.
While we have no real choice in the Metro St. John’s, Newfoundland, area – we only have Bell-Aliant and Rogers – at least we don’t have caps with Bell-Aliant. At least not yet.
I really think that the CRTC and their political masters have to get the balls to divide our Internet providers into three parts. One part for the infrastructure and only the infrastructure. One part for the network access and only the network access. And one part for content and only content. Bell, Rogers and Shaw are all conflicted. They all own infrastructure, network access and content.
And those in power think that there is no conflict of interest? Bah sheep.
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.