The kernel of my home office

I had an account with Bell Canada for more than 10 years, both phone and internet. I endured some pretty steep prices, un-requested changes of service with price hikes, and endlessly irritating calls to their automated machines. I'm currently on hold trying to unravel their latest, truly, incredibly, bad business practice. It started earlier this year, when I tried to combine my bills that had been up until then separated. I didn't care too much except that I would get these irritating advertisements for cheap internet and when I phoned them up, they'd tell me I wasn't eligible since I was already a customer. After combining my bills (that was the only way they could give me a cheaper service), it got worse and the last straw was when they charged me $.20/minute for a call to Spain. Apparently not covered with my normal long-distance plan to which I'd enrolled, they decided they could just charge any old extorsionist rate... But even aside from that, they had ...

I'm back from vacation, excitedly but also reluctantly returning to my web development projects. But before I forget it all, I just wanted to share my thanks and awe at the beautiful piece of the world I was visiting. So, big thanks to the Surmans who shared their cottage rental up north of Parry Sound with us and threw in the free photos as a bonus (left, and  lots more on Flickr ). And also the St. Louis Andersons and Chantal and Carter, who also came with their delightful children. Special mention goes to Estora for coming blueberry picking with me and the dogs before anyone else was up, and to Kelly for making the yummiest blueberry and peach pie that ever was. And, having said that, as I go through my inbox and listen to the radio to reacquaint myself with the human part of this country that I live in, I also want to give thanks to a couple of people who I think are responsible in a kind of fundamental way for these gifts that we all enjoy: David Suzuki I just hea...