TubaOrNotTuba

I’m going to catch up with a small administrative task left over from yesterday, and then we’ll look at some ideas on how the virtual desktop can be shared among varied machines. For the past couple of years, the snowfall levels have kept me watchful – will the tendency to accumulate come to an end, so that we can return to more of a “barefoot in the park” lifestyle. To that end, I’ve been taking photos, and yesterday afternoon should have been one of those freeze-frames. Except that I was at work; my photo today is LATE, but the difference should not be measurable.

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If my calculations are correct (and the data set is accurate) then 56% of my fellow citizens now enjoy a mid-winter civic holiday. As of this year, four provinces have designated the third Monday in February as Family Day. One more province and we’re at the level of participation that could be used for things like constitutional amendments. Come on Maritimes! And Newfoundland. You can push this whole numbers game over the two-thirds required. Just out of curiosity, who used that number with a country composed of ten provinces. Can we say “it does not compute” in either official language?

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The idea of change (in the computing world) doesn’t “cut it” where I spend my days. Open Source, Open Office, Open Minds (I made up the third one); all are actively discouraged. My own efforts to extend the reach of Firefox and Thunderbird and Gimp and a few others don’t seem to wet much pavement, although MySQL did sneak in through a back door. If these products were harder to use, or less dependable, I could accept it. The truth is stranger than fiction.

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My morning started out with a complete validation of what I’ve been doing for the last two decades. My professional duties have had, as a focus, the evangelization of the computer as a useful tool in education. Today, I did the setup for a meeting involving administrators, teachers and representatives of the minister of education. Nothing too showy; a laptop and a projector, some video footage, the usual. The difference is that this audience expected the tools to be there, and they welcomed the media content. Stuff that had been recommended by someone to someone else via a link in email, which they all can’t live without. A conference room where the laptop was ordinary. Working wireless.

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Another month has begun. The school board year, which differs from the school year because we do work during the summer months, is already 25% over. We’re on the edge of changing seasons, and when I take the dog out before sunrise, neither of us want to spend much time on the wet grass in our bare feet. The dog’s a softie, I know. Because I leave for work before true sunrise, I’m aware of the changing light. And, of course, the changing trees.

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One of “my” online newspapers is carrying an open letter to parents today, explaining a policy decision from yesterday. At least they didn’t dilly-dally on getting the press release out. Allegedly (what a strange word to describe actually) the local school board in a central Ontario area decided to cancel school buses yesterday due to cold weather and blowing snow. For the safety of the students.

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Here we are, basking in the calm after the storm. For those who didn’t know, it is a myth that you can’t have a snow storm with really cold temperatures. A myth, I tell you. Although the weather observers have declared an accumulation of 45 cm, the reality is that there is a variation depending upon where your car is parked; there the total appears to be much greater. As well, I am glad the dog has a long tail. It is proving useful for tracking her progress as she mimics a submarine in shallow waters.

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The whole process of choosing those who will represent us is one that fascinates me. If we aren’t in an election campaign, somewhere, we’re wishing we were. The warnings that two concurrent sets of “educating the people” will leave them confused is warning enough.

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This is a historic day in our school board. After years of preparation, negotiation and reinked schematics, the light went on in our fibre optic this morning. Nothing we can look at; I even brought along sunglasses just in case, but the flickering LEDs in the new section of rack are proof that enough patience and money will finally end up with a light at the end of the tunnel.

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As a preface, the price of gasoline just slid below the 90 cents per litre mark for the first time in about fifteen months. Small miracles are almost as good for us as the larger ones.

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