Good on Apple for donating $100,000 toward opposing a ban on gay marriage in California. Bad on me for actually reading some of the comments in a Mac rumours forum. There are many that are blatantly outright offensive, but there were a couple threads that left me scratching my head in disbelief:

MacPossum: While I find it disappointing that Apple would publicly come out against Prop 8, [cut]

leekohler: Why are you disappointed? Gay people are people too.

MacPossum: Of course they are. I treat my gay friends the same way I would treat any straight person. However, marriage is a privilege given to a man and a woman and I believe that because someone has chosen to be gay [emphasis mine] does not automatically grant them the same right.

************

extraextra: [cut] it couldn't be that perhaps banning gay marriage is discrimination and a violation of human rights, could it...

Aranince: Oh lets not discriminate against anyone! Don't discriminate against robbers, murderers, sex predators...they are people too! Don't treat any different!

Skunk: Are you equating homosexuals with robbers, murderers and sex predators?

Beric: I view their activities as morally the same, yes.

However, I have no problem with associating myself with any of those people groups. But I still view them as confused people who need serious help.

WTF?!? Why the fuck do I allow myself get trolled like this?!?

I had a problem printing from InDesign after doing an update to Leopard 10.5.5. I found a couple posts randomly of people having similar problems, but no fix. So I fixed it myself. And told everyone. Sorry, I need to stroke my ego for a sec and show how it has spread all over the place. Haha!

This is the day I broke my geek cherry.

...although it wasn't really that big of a deal, it was just a modern version of the extension swapping we all used to have to do in the dark ages of the Mac. :)

...while I learn how to monetize my life. Hah.

I'm so glad unions are here to protect people who desperately need help. The National Post outlined a plan which was to be put in place on Mississauga Transit buses. Drivers would have had to announce the next bus stop. Good thing the union helped out... who knows what would have happened if this plan had gone through!

Plans called for drivers to indicate stops by either shouting or using a microphone. Signs would be installed on the city's bus stops to assist drivers in remembering which location came next on their route. But the city's transit union quickly objected to the plan, arguing it would be dangerous to ask drivers to read road signs while driving.

"You cannot drive and read -- that's impossible," said Vito Tomas, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1572.

I'm absolutely dumbfounded.

If there's one thing I've learned from doing wine tastings for Churchill Cellars, it's that boxes and especially Tetra Paks are actually the ideal packaging format for most wine. It's great to see that echoed in The New York Times. Hopefully that will help break some of the negative stigma associated with drinking "wine out of a box."

Although some sommeliers may scoff at wine from a plastic spigot, boxes are perfect for table wines that don’t need to age, which is to say, all but a relative handful of the top wines from around the world. What’s more, boxed wine is superior to glass bottle storage in resolving that age-old problem of not being able to finish a bottle in one sitting. Once open, a box preserves wine for about four weeks compared with only a day or two for a bottle. Boxed wine may be short on charm, but it is long on practicality.

I'd love to see brands sold in both formats on the same shelves. I think it's necessary for consumers to be able to compare them side-by-side—boxes would be a no-brainer for most people.

I grabbed pwnage on Sunday and did a fresh install of 2.0 on my 2G iPhone. I highly recommend it. Not quite as simple as ziphone, but close enough if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately for me Insomnia doesn't work on 2.0, so I had to manually edit a plist file (com.apple.persistentconnection) to keep my phone awake. I set it to poll for email every 28 seconds (since my phone dies every time sleep is activated, which happens after 30 seconds). So the battery will die just as quick as before, but at least I get my gmail within an average of 14 seconds.

It's amazing how solid and well devloped most of the applications I've tried out in the app store are. Apple's remote app (there are far too many programs with that name) is brilliant. You can control iTunes from your iPhone. There were programs that you could do that before with, but this one looks and feels exactly like when you're browsing local music.

Truphone looks promising. I tried a call on it and it seemed to work very well. I may use that to come up with a better solution for making and receiving calls. I could probably use a bare bones phone plan with unlimited incoming, and considering I have wifi almost everywhere I use the phone, my cost will basically be 6¢ a minute. Brilliant!

I also paid for Tuner. It tunes into radio stations. It doesn't work too well over EDGE, but once my 3G phone comes in I can't wait to use it. This is probably the greatest thing ever. Free radio from anywhere, available anywhere. It might take a while for people to realize how awesome thing is. Satelite radio without the satelite.

I think I'm a pretty intense person. I don't mean that in a self-centred boastful way. When I'm interested in something, I'm really into it and then move on for a while.

stuff i've been intensely into lately
I built a hackintosh as an upgrade to my Home Theatre PC. This is my home computer, which is attached to my HDTV. It now runs Mac OS 10.5.2 very well. I'm now able to watch Blu-ray encoded videos in full resolution. I also got my feet wet in overclocking. With regular Macs, up until last week that was only really possible with hardware modifications. But on a hackintosh you can go just as crazy as you can with a normal PC. I had never seen what Blu-ray even looked like until putting it together. Crazy awesome. It cost me $400 in upgrades to my PC for a new motherboard, processor and video card and it's faster than any other box I've used. Ironically, I'm unable to get it boot it into Windows. It's too bad, since it would have been a very decent gaming box.

I broke my iPhone. I dunno how exactly. It was either from the 2 foot drop onto hardwood, or by getting damp after leaving the top down in the rain in the S2000. I've broken it a few times before already and always brought it back from the dead. This time not so much. It works when plugged in, so I'm probably going to be keeping it around, permanently plugged into the car.

I upgraded stuff at work. I picked up an Xserve off craigslist and moved everything onto there. It's nice having an actual server instead of repurposing an old desktop. Now I'm using a repurposed desktop as a backup server. It mirrors our shares nightly, and acts as a backup LDAP mirror too. I'm intensely interested in geeking out and figuring out how to support our company (and potentially others) technologically as we grow.

I've been paying attention to the prices of things. This is a big deal for me... I've always been able to justify spending money in ways that might seem reckless. Now I can go to a store and look at the price of chicken and know if I'm getting a good deal or not. I used to think that as long as I wasn't buying it in a restaurant it was positive. Hopefully I can ride this one out for a while. It's very similar to watching food intake.

stuff i've been intensely not into
I've been completely anti-social. I totally overdid it on facebook. I read everything by everyone, spoke to everyone, met up with as many people as I could. It was just too much, and too intense to keep up for longer than a year. In other words, I haven't gone through any non-work related email or spent any appreciable time on facebook in months. Don't take it personally if I haven't replied or commented on anything. It's not just online either, I feel awkward talking people I've known forever. I blame overstimulation.

I've been out of the loop watching my food intake and keeping my exercise levels up. I don't know why this is. Maybe because I'm going to miss riding to Montreal this year. I know there are other goals, but I'm just not feeling it right now. I feel really out of shape compared to this time last year, and it's discouraging when I'm trying to compete. I need to modify my schedule to make this regular. It doesn't help that I've been dealing with injuries too. I think it has to do with the lack of consistent exercise.

I haven't been doing much web work. The magazine has been coming along, but not at the rate I would like. There are a couple other projects that I need to get moving on, but it's hard without feeling inspired. Maybe some new software will get the ball rolling. I think it's time to try out Expression Engine again. Once the ball gets rolling I know it'll be hard to stop.

Cars and driving. Absolutely not feeling them at all. Maybe it's a bit of overstimulation with that too. There are a ton of awesome cars in our neighbourhood. Every day I see at least one car that sells for over 200k. It's gotten to the point where now when I hear someone with a Gallardo accelerate hard, I half-heartedly yell for him to quit making so much racket! On the other hand, the V12 Murciélagos haven't bothered me yet—maybe there's still some hope. When it comes to driving I just don't want to do it. Give me a subway, my bike, or even a pair of walking shoes any day. It's ironic how as a kid getting a license and a car was my freedom, and now it feels like they're the things preventing me from having it.

It's amazing how quickly emotions flare and then subside these days. It appears the potential cancellation fee for an iPhone is not $7700, but only a maximum of $400. Typo. Jesus, you'd think such a large company would think to proof their fine print before hitting the submit button.

Here's my communication with Elizabeth Hamilton from Rogers today:

[blah blah blah, see my last post for what I said to her]

Thank you for your email. There is some incorrect and confusing information in the marketplace. iPhone 3G bundles released June 27 are not the ONLY price plans available to our customers, they are the high value plans that allow our customers to use this device to its fullest and offer considerable savings over separate voice and data plans that exist in market today.
As always, our customers have many choices, they can use their existing voice and smartphone data plans if they wish, including for example, selecting from our new data pricing (ranging from $30 for 300MB to $100 for 6GB or $50 Flex Rate plan) and then adding a voice plan that suits their own needs, or they can choose a voice and data plan to best suit their individual needs.
Customers do not need to take the value packs, and can order most other features a la carte, such as $7 for Caller ID.
With respect to existing customers, all customers' accounts are unique. If desired, customers can keep their existing voice service plan and pick a separate data plan (not in the iPhone 3G bundle) to meet their needs.
They will need to check their upgrade eligibility but any customer with a monthly service fee that is over $30 for example, can upgrade to an iPhone 3G at $199 (for the 8GB model). Other pricing may be available depending on the customer's individual information. If you are interested in this exciting device, I hope that this information is helpful to you. Thank you. Liz Hamilton

Cool. That's been said on other sites and blogs, but it's reassuring to hear. However it didn't address the issue about $1100 cancellation fees. So I replied:

Hi Liz. Thank you for getting back to me about this. I've heard the information you've just emailed me about other places too. I appreciate that, and right now I don't have much of a problem with that. I know the rates are much more than they are in other places in the world, but that's always been the case with Canadian wireless. In fact as it stands my bill WILL be lowered. Right now I'm using the $65 unlimited data plan. Or I could use another of your new, much friendlier data plans.

What actually was the last straw for me was this:
http://www.rogers.com/cms/html/iphone_vpterms.shtml

The ECF is the greater of (ii) $1100 or (iii) $220 per month remaining in the service agreement, to a maximum of 400 (plus applicable taxes), and applies on each line in the plan that is terminated.

I first read it as, if I want to cancel an iPhone plan, I will be subject to the lesser of $1100 or $220 x whatever months are left in my contract. So that would mean that I'm on the hook for $1100 if I decide to cancel my phone before there are 5 months remaining in my contract. Then when I reread it I saw that it actually says greater. So if I bought an iPhone and decided to cancel my contract after 30 days I would be liable for $7700! You must realize how ridiculous this is. I sincerely hope this is a typo or miscommunication. There are a lot of people who are absolutely livid after reading this!

There is the point where it says "to a maximum of 400," which I hope would be what was actually intended. The way it reads now is ambiguous as to whether it means $400 or 400 months. $400 would be in line with what US customers are paying for early cancellation. As well in the US they are offering iPhones without contracts for a $400 premium. http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/01/doin-the-wacky-atandt-math2/

Would you please be able to clarify this? I will get the word out immediately. Thank you.

Then I hit up the wirelessnorth.ca thread that got our panties in a bunch again. Someone said it was a typo. Then someone else pointed to the French version of the page.

Maybe we jumped a little quick. But what I find the most surprising is how we wouldn't put it past Rogers to do something like that.

So I guess I'm back to the front of the line again. Ha!

I realize that my last post was a little scattered—there was a lot going through my mind at once. Now I've had some time to calm down and direct my energy a little bit. Here's a recap of what's gone on this week:Hi, I just had a look at your new July 11 rate plans and I'm very disappointed. I would be saving about $20 a month compared to how much I am paying now for similar service from Rogers, however that still is muchmore than I would be paying to get similar service from another company. I would have been willing to live with it. Despite all the resentment I have towards Rogers for billing problems in the past, I would have been fine with paying a premium for a premium product. However, I just read that there will be an $1100 contract cancellation fee. That is absolutely ridiculous.

July 11 I will be canceling my Rogers account. This is the absolute last straw. Almost everyone I know who says they use Rogers has done it with a disclaimer. "I only use Rogers because they're the only mobile provider who lets me use my grey market phone," or "I only use them because they're the only ones who don't nickel and dime me over ringtones." Whoever has come up with these rate plans and terms and conditions obviously must have no idea how much resentment there is towards Rogers as a company.

Personally, I was almost at the point where I accepted using Rogers' services as a necessary evil. I stopped complaining to anyone who asked. I even minimally complained when I had to deal with an issue where I was inexplicably charged 50% extra for US roaming. I've been paying a minimum of $200 a month for services that I thought were not too much worse than I would be getting from somewhere else. But not anymore.

I understand that this is a business. I understand that this is a unique opportunity for the company to take advantage of a situation where they can make a lot of money. But this is not the right way to do this. I will be canceling all my Rogers services. I will also be doing this at work, where 70% of us are currently with Rogers. I'm also posting this openly on my blog, endlessly tweeting about how disappointed I am, and passing this on to everybody I know on Facebook. There are a lot of people who are buzzing wildly about this—I highly suggest you address this problem immediately.

Quick rant. I've been waiting for the new iPhone. $200 for a new one vs. $200 for a replacement screen. No brainer, right? Not quite. New packages are online now. Looks horrible. But compared to what I'm paying now it's actually an improvement. At least I think it is.

Last time I was at a resort was 30 years ago in Bahamas. Needless to say I don't remember much other than the way the cleaning lady made the bed and how I enjoyed my first English muffin with butter. So it was a very different experience from the types of vacations I'm used to.

Cuba was always my first choice in Caribbean destinations. The cars, the history, the sea, the contempt for their closest neighbour. Not to mention being able to see how socialism can actually succeed in a North American setting (yes I said succeed—at least on some levels). I figured the beaches would be great anywhere, but at least Cuba has other stuff going for it too.

Turns out I got to spend a lot of time by the pool working on my tan. It's a nice tan but...

I think I get the whole point of going to a resort. It's supposed to be relaxing and chilled out. No worries, just hang out and do what you want. But to me that felt more like a jail. Don't get me wrong, it was a really fucking nice jail... but still.

It's not like there was a shortage of things to do. There were excursions to different islands, deep sea fishing, SCUBA lessons, day trips to Havana and Varaderro, scooter rentals, kayaks, jeep trips into the forests... pretty much anything that you could ask for was there. But after spending as much money as we did to just get there, it was hard to justify spending a couple hundred extra to take a boat to see a better island with a better beach and better snorkeling. So I tried sitting by the pool. The beach was nice, but the pool is where we all ended up.

The day trip to Havana completely soured me on leaving the resort on any organized excursions. There was so much potential, but so little of it was realized. The architecture was uber cool. I adore urban decay. I could have spent all day with a camera and a bottle of water. Our tour guide babysat us through all the tourist traps—having to contend with people selling everything from cigars to charlie to on-the-fly caricatures drawn as you're walking by. People walking into your pictures and asking for money. People with no hands begging for a change. Guaranteed if you make eye contact with a local they will be asking you for something. Entirely unenjoyable. The cigar factory tour would have been a lot easier to digest if it didn't feel like a 30-minute infomercial for the cigar shop next door.

The resort was nice. The wedding was perfect. The food was actually quite good (if you chose correctly). The service was hit and miss. I'm sure if consistently tipped well it'd be more of a hit, but even then I'm not so sure. We tipped the cleaning lady well and she did a good job. Not exceptional, but better than usual. I get the impression that at that class of hotel that the service staff have worked their way through the crappy places to get there, and it's almost like a retirement for them. They've already proven themselves and now it's the gravy train.

The watersport rentals were pretty much useless. A half hour in a sea kayak isn't anywhere near long enough, plus all the interesting stuff is outside their boundaries—although I'm sure if you tipped well enough they'd look past their self-imposed restrictions and you could do what you want. The music was the biggest pain in the ass. Every morning at 10:30 they'd play one of the two CDs they had very loudly. Then someone would come on the mic and speak some incomprehensible hybrid of French, Spanish and English, trying to get people to come dance. Annoying.

The best thing was having everyone there. That's what made it for me. Being able to go out for lunch or breakfast at any time and running into friends is the best. There was always someone who's up for doing the same things as you... even if it is just hanging by the pool.

I really needed to experience a vacation like that. It's a good feeling to not have to do anything. To be able to get up when you want, and to do what you want. It was an awesome destination. But I don't want a destination—I want a journey. I want to actually do something. Not something that comes in a box.

I want challenges and solutions. I want stories and misadventures. I want to be forced to have to communicate with someone I don't share a language with. I want to be stuffed on a stinky bus to some village with a bunch of locals. I want to accidentally end up on the wrong end of a train, heading to some place I need a visa to get into. I want to sleep in a train station of a place I've never heard of. I want to spend four days in bed with explosive [ahem] stomach issues so I can be forced to read the first book I've read in years. Those are things that happened on my other vacations, and that's what was missing in Cuba.

When our plane was diverted to Havana most of the people with us were aggravated and stressed out. I left there wishing more things happened. Things were too smooth, too predictable.

I guess it's kinda like life. Either try and control change or revel in it. I choose the latter.

I was in the air whether I wanted to ride today or not. I looked at the weather report before going to bed last night and it said thunderstorms. I figured I'd make a judgment call in the morning, and I was glad I did. It was a gorgeous sunny morning.

My phone said the departure time was 7:40, and I figured I'd ride to Kipling station to get a few extra k in. I was there a little after 8, so I just started the ride on my own, figuring I'd catch up to everybody like I usually do.

About a half hour in I got a tweet about the transit strike. Makes sense why nobody would be out riding, since most of the riders come in by subway. Instead of chasing everybody else, I concentrated on chasing myself from the ride last year. My GPS was showing how far ahead of myself I was the last time on the ride.

By the time I got to around 35k I had a flashback to the same ride last year. I was having a conversation with someone about how hungover I was and how that ride was almost unbearably hard. And I thought I was still drunk. Maybe I'm not in that much better shape than last year. Haha.

Here's the ride:

To top it off when I got home I checked my google calendar and it said the ride started an hour later. Apparently my synch between calendars is off by an hour.

It was a win though... 74 km total. I'm happy with that.

Kottke shows no love what would have been my dream DJ tool. This would have eliminated the unbearably long wait every Thursday at Play de Record to... uh... play the record you grabbed off the shelf.

Quick post. Orthotics ruled my world today. Even though I'm still in pain from yesterday, I threw my old shoes on with my orthotics in them last night. That totally eliminated my ankle pain instantly. Feeling bold (maybe a little stupid too), I woke up today and did the same run as yesterday. Exact same distance. It took me exactly the same amount of time. My heart rate was exactly the same—in fact if you lay my HR graph from this morning over yesterdays, they are nearly identical. I've never seen such consistency. As I hit the front door of the building, my GPS "virtual partner" finished too. The difference this time was there was no pain.

I'm so sick to death of all these issues. Ankle hurts. I'm going to try my orthotics again. Stupid body. I hate it. But on the positive side, while it was working I managed to coax it into a 4k outdoor run this morning. I woke up with this crazy urge to run outside. My first. Yay. Hurts though. Stupid.



If you're reading this on facebook, click through and you can see my route through Rosedale. It's mornings like this that make me really really happy for where I live.

I'm thinking about it, but I don't know if I can do it. A year-long challenge to see if I can live without owning a car. I've been obsessed with cars since I picked up my first issue of Car and Driver in May 1987. 21 years ago!?! Wow.

The past couple years have almost completely killed off any joy I've had with cars. Problem after issue after money sucking problem. Plus traffic has become ridiculous. Try getting anywhere on a Saturday afternoon without traffic. It's insane. Not to mention that people seem to keep getting stupider. The past couple weeks I've noticed a huge increase in people driving like retards—myself included.

The lease on the S2000 is up next spring. At the very least it looks like some very interesting cars will be coming out between next spring and the one after. Taking a break would either make me really miss driving and cars again or it will further cement my discontent.

I don't have a very transit-friendly lifestyle right now. I reverse commute from midtown to an area in Scarborough that was intended to be serviced by an expansion of the SRT. It's nearly a dead zone on the transit map. It takes an hour to get to Scarborough Town Centre, but a half hour by bus to go the last 3 km to work. Alternatively I can take the Yonge line to the Sheppard subway, but the bus across Sheppard is smelly and slow. It takes less time, even after the factored walking time.

Cycling to work is a great option when it's nice out. I haven't finalized my route yet, but it's somewhere in the area of 25 km each way. It took 45 minutes when I lived on Davisville, so it should still take less time than transit. Showering at work isn't bad, since I'd still have to do that at home anyway.

On top of that I work in Newmarket once a week and one weekend a month. I would have to be pretty serious about successfully working at that from home. I could cut down some trips up there, but not all. Which reminds me... stop writing and get back to work!

...on morbidity
When it's my time just throw me in a burlap sack and bury me under the closest tree. Use the money saved to get everyone together, have a party, and forge meaningful relationships. Hah. Seriously though. I'll make a podcast or something. At least in death I can guilt the captive audience into actually listening to my music for once. ;) Or distribute my iTunes library to anyone interested. Or writings, blogs, posts, emails... I dunno. Whatever. Open source me. That'd be pretty cool. I hoard way too much data, might as well let it loose.

...on running
I should have kept quiet in my last post about being confident that I will be able to run without hurting myself. The next run I got some serious ankle pain and clicking noises on rotation. Similar to what my shoulder felt like. It got better a week later, but it's not fully healed yet. Sucks. Maybe I should start using orthotics again. I'm very disappointed, but at least it's pretty much cycling season now. Hopefully it'll get better sooner rather than later. Maybe I'll take it easier next time. Maybe no marathon for me this year. Boo.

...on cycling
I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the ride this year. In fact I'm pretty sure I won't. Considering I personally paid half the money I needed to fundraise last year, that's a pretty big expense. I don't have the time, energy and resources to put in a proper fundraising effort either. So I've decided to spend the time off work and the money on something that seemed more worthwhile to me this year. I really enjoyed last year's ride, and would love to do another... it was not an easy decision.

On the positive side after reading Tanya's last post on riding with the Randonneurs I think that might be a good fit for me. I know when riding to Montreal last year I was wishing we could cover more ground in a day. Maybe twice as much? Check out Randonneurs Ontario for more info. They start off with nice 120k single-day rides, through 27 hour 400k rides, up to 75 hour 1200k rides! Just crazy enough for me.

...on swimming
Still haven't done it yet. The pool in Columbus was too small, and I've been way too busy catching up from consecutive weekends out of town. I'm hoping that in two weeks Kristine might be able to give me some pointers while she sips mojitos by the pool. [nudge nudge]

...on Columbus and soccer
Columbus is a really nice small city. Not what I expected from a midwestern rust belt city. The actual soccer game was disappointing, but the smoke bombs thrown on the field and segregated seating gave me an idea of what it must have been like in England years ago. I got a kick out of the light hearted insults after the game:

You guys aren't singing anymore... EHHH?

Yeah, well we've got universal health care!

I'm undecided as to whether that sounds more European or less.

...on Quebec City and French
We didn't start the fire—it was always burning. It certainly answered the question of why upon arrival the city smelled like a barbeque. Chantel and I watched a video in a museum about the history of Quebec and Canada, which went on to discuss the future of Quebec in a predominantly anglophone North America. Picture Celine Dion singing to a backdrop of some high-tech transportation being built by Bombardier. Brutal. The tone was alarmist, as if the English language was threatening their lives, their culture, and their economy. I can understand how some people might take that and jump to the conclusion that anyone who speaks English is a threat. It seemed to echo how many Canadians stereotype and antagonize Americans.

...on Kim and Giles' wedding in Cuba
I didn't think I would be able to go. A combination money and timing pretty much killed any hope. It was a pleasant surprise when Sue found a vacation package that saved us 25% over what it would have cost. Even more surprising was that it was cheap enough that Chantel decided to come too! I didn't want to sacrifice the ride, but I'm happy. I would rather support my friends... not to mention it's a pretty sweet vacation to get out of it! I haven't been anywhere south of Florida since I was three. It'll be awesome to have so many friends on my first trip south.

If I get to the point where I'm counting down days/minutes/hours until we leave on twitter and facebook just shoot me... then throw me in a burlap sack. :)

I've been so excited about actually being able to run lately that I'm already starting to think about the next step. The last time on the treadmill I bumped up my speed halfway through by another .2 mph, so now I'm up to 6.6. Crazy. I hear that treadmills are notorious for being inaccurate, so I picked up a footpod for my Forerunner. Not only will I be able to track my heart rate, but speed too. Along with that come calories and a whole swack of new data to pick apart and analyze. I can't wait.

After a little over a month of running I'm really starting to feel confident that I will be able to continue at this rate. It still hurts and my lower back is still unhappy, but it's been getting better and easier. I just hope it doesn't swing the other way again. So now I'm thinking about taking on swimming.

I assume swimming should be easier on my body than running or even cycling, but it's still going to be harder. Big water kinda scares me. Pools I'm mostly cool with, but I haven't been near one in years. I don't even know where to go to start. At least I ran a lot when I was a kid, and I've cycled a lot in the past few years. I tried swimming across a pool in Poland 25 pounds ago, and that was a serious struggle. With less buoyancy from less geo it's going to be even harder. And I hear that the gains are a lot slower to realize. 400 metres doesn't sound like much, but I don't want to get my hopes up for no reason.

I suppose I could wetsuit it and backstroke my way through the swimming portion of a triathlon. I'm way more comfortable on my back since I can at least breathe freely and keep relatively unstressed. But...

On facebook I'm tagging my triathlon friends, Caius, Robert, Sandy and I think Marko too (unless you're just into running/cycling), as well as anyone who's got swimming listed as an activity. Does anyone have any tips, suggestions, or comments on how to get started, or even where I should be going to do this? I know there's a pool at the Goodlife at Yonge and Bloor which isn't far from home, as well as one at Yonge and Finch which... well I guess I could go there on the way to work in Scarborough.

Awesome, excited.

I don't know if any of you have been following zibri and the iPhone hacking scene the past while. Basically this guy named zibri used an exploit a someone found and created an application that cracks iPhones and iPod Touches and unlocks the phone for use on any network. Super awesome. It's so much more reliable than the old methods and bloody easy too.

Today zibri got pissed off because google decided to suspend his adsense account. He amassed $4000 worth of clicks by persuading visitors to his page to click on his adsense ads. Something to the effect "once I get a third of all visitors to click on an ad, I'll be able to continue development."

In plain English it is spelled out in the adsense ToS:

... publishers may not request that users click the ads ... publishers participating in the AdSense program ... may not encourage users to click the Google ads by using phrases such as "click the ads," "support us," "visit these links," or other similar language

In other words he was trying to scam advertisers out of $4000, and now he's crying like a baby because they won't give it to him.

I suck with money. But this really helped me understand what's going on in steamertown and the rest of the US. The Credit Crisis, Illustrated.