A tribunal out of the UK recently ruled that CIBC discriminated against someone on the basis of age.  Apparently,

CIBC was unable to successfully demonstrate to the Tribunal that it had not discriminated on the basis of age.

Isn’t that just a lovely standard of justice?

In the past little bit, there have been a bunch of headlines talking about pot and brain damage among teens.  They’ve all fallen short as journalists usually do but one publication managed to get it even more wrong than the rest.

From the San Diego Tribune, we can find the following.

A study of Canadian teenagers, among the largest consumers of cannabis worldwide, found that smoking the illicit drug is harder on young brains than originally thought. Writing in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, researchers at McGill University in Montreal said daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause significant depression and anxiety and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain.

Among a myriad of problems with the usual shoddy reporting, the very first line of the Tribune’s article spews forth some major disinformation.  Not a single Canadian teenager participated in this study.  No teenager at all participated in this study but hey, why let facts stand in the way of good ol’ sensationalist reporting?

As I briefly mentioned in a recent post to this blog, the study mentioned tested a powerful chemical’s effects on the brain of some rats.  Aside from the chemical compound used having an entirely different pharmacological profile than other cannabanoids, the study also actually failed to record any concrete evidence of permanent brain damage.

You know, I understand the need to sell ad space but I don’t think that can be balanced by unethical behaviour.

Dead tree media indeed.

**Cue deep and engaging announcer voice**

Imagine a product so incredible, that you can’t even fathom it’s greatness.  imagine internet so fast, that you can’t even use it for anything like…downloading.  Imagine a corporate policy so rigid, that you can’t even customize your hardware!

Imagine….SASKTEL HIGH SPEED INTERNET!

Yes, I have a serious gripe and Shaw’s about to benefit for it.  The worst part of it all is that I’ve been tolerating the failure of Sasktel to fix their service shortcomings for…oh I dunno…a year and a half or so?  Anyone know what 2WIRE is?  A company that makes substandard computer hardware.

Yeah, one of those or something very close.  It’s called a wireless gateway and is intended to allow Sasktel the ability to configure your modem remotely.  It’s also supposed to deliver internet to your home computers either via a wired connection or wireless connection.

Many moons ago, Sasktel decided to contract with 2WIRE to provide wireless gateway technology for their high speed internet customers.  these gateways are intended to be comprehensive solutions for both the customer and the service provider in delivering seamless home network solutions to internet users.  Unfortunately, it falls far short of the mark.

When I first experienced a problem, it was when the 2WIRE wireless gateway modem was introduced to our home.  When downloading files or using the web in a slightly intensive fashion, the modem would shut off, restart and sputter back to life.  If this were to happen every few days or so, it would be tolerable but at times, it was happening in intervals of less than a full minute for 10 minutes straight or however long it took for me to give up on using the web for a few hours.

Thankfully, a technician thought of a solution.  It seems the 2WIRE gateway was only good for so much traffic all at once.  If it was forced to deal with too much at once, it would shut off and go to all to hell.  the solution was to replace the 2WIRE gateway with an older Westel modem that was previously used by Sasktel.  Another line would be used with a 2WIRE gateway to deliver our Sasktel MAX television service.

In the end, this actually worked out perfectly.  We had high speed service that suffered no interruptions, wireless internet was delivered through my own wireless router attached to the Westel modem and our Max Service worked well enough though it sometimes had the signal interrupted as the 2WIRE gateway crapped out.  All in all, it was tolerable and our primary concern being the internet, it was all good.

Now jump ahead a bit to when Sasktel upgraded their television set top boxes.  Eventually, a Sasktel tech came to our home to replace the old boxes.  I thought that’s all he was there for but no.  Apparently, he figured that our “old technology” on the desk being the Westel modem should be replaced and our second line for internet axed.  Without asking anyone why the setup was as it was, the dude yanked our Westel modem, disconnected the second line and put all our services through one 2WIRE gateway again.

Needless to say, I was a little miffed but I noticed the gateway was a different model than the one we had problems with before.  I bit the  bullet and figured we should at least see if it was alright.  shortly after, I was on the phone with Sasktel again demanding my old Westel setup with two lines.  wouldn’t you know it, a policy had been developed to prohibit this practice.  No I wasn’t goin to get a westel modem and no I wasn’t going to get a second line for my internet services.

Now we’ve had techs out here again looking at the set up and the best recommendation we can get is to not use our high speed internet as high speed internet.  we even had a guy up here in Saskatoon from Regina to look into it but we still have crappy internet service and no follow up calls to resolve the problem.  Normally I wouldn’t expect follow up calls but I’m the one that’s been calling for well over a year, I figure the ball is in their court now and they don’t seem to be all that concerned about this.  I’m tired of being the one to initiate contact over this issue.

The last time I talked to a customer service rep, i got this gem or close to it.

“Well, what I normally suggest to customers like you is to set a limit on your download programs so it doesn’t overload the gateway.”

Uhh…isn’t that asking me to use my high speed internet at not such a high speed?  What’s the point of having high speed internet service if I have to use it like high speed light?

“I’m sorry sir but the modem can’t handle so much traffic.  If you limit your download speeds, you should be able to use the internet normally.”

But don’t you get that I’m using the web to download quite often and use streaming media?  Isn’t that normal or is there something I’m not aware of in your TOS?

“I’m just saying that if you limit your network traffic, you shouldn’t experience problems.”

But…do you…I…ARRG!

*Click*

Well hey, I know I’m not a customer service specialist but I kinda figured that if I paid for high speed Internet service, I would actually be able to use it as High Speed service rather than high speed light.  if I wanted something that acted like it was 5X faster than dial up, that’s what I would have asked for.

I’m sold something advertised as being as fast as 1 Megabyte per second (10 Mega bits) and it craps out at speeds of 150 Kilobytes per second or about 1/7th the advertised speed.  when I call to complain, I’m told that my high speed connection advertised and rated at 10 Megabits per second can’t actually be used because of the hardware I’m using…so use it slower please.

What?

Perhaps most aggravating right now is that even when I’m not downloading a large file, (Say like after I purchase a digital copy of the game, Tropico) I still experience service interruptions.  As the family is using the web, suddenly all of us notice that web pages refuse to load for a minute or two.  This is terrible service.

Screw Sasktel.  All my services will be switched to Shaw Cable including my home phone service.  I’m a pretty tolerant guy but putting up with this stupidity for over a year, expecting it to maybe be fixed, is just too much.

P.S.
Sasktel, your website sucks too.  No time to go on at length…it just does.

UPDATE Jun’ 22nd, 2010:

It seems that this particular blog post of mine consistently gets anywhere from 3-10 visits per day.  I’m pretty happy about that.  I figured since I have had Shaw Cable services for television, phone and Internet, I would mention how we’re coping with those services.  Frankly, all of us in the family are very happy with the switch.

Our Internet no longer suffers service interruptions.  Download speeds are throttled but not so as to make it terribly slow.  I think when downloading a torrent, an initial burst of up to 5.0 Mbps followed by a constant speed that varies from 150-300 Kbps is entirely comfortable.  While downloading a torrent or other large digital file, streaming media does not suffer in any fashion.  This is extremely desirable compared to Sasktel’s 2Wire gateway technology faltering when constant downloads at speeds as low as 50 Kbps were maintained.

Home phone service is reasonably priced into our bundle and we have no reason to dislike it.

Our cable service is good as well and as a bonus, we managed to find a package that suits the family’s wants as well as save us some money beyond the promotional pricing period.

We are very happy with the switch and I’m happy to demonstrate what market competition is all about.  Sasktel’s Internet service caused us no small amount of headaches and their inability or unwillingness to solve the problem drove us away as customers in this home.  If Sasktel ever improves their services, perhaps we’ll consider switching back should Shaw ever cause us problems but for now, it looks like we’ll be here for a good long while.

Here I sit…no…no wait.  perhaps quoting bathroom grafitti isn’t the best way to start a blog post.  Apologizing for not posting in a month also isn’t the best so I won’t do that either.  I do have something to apologize for but apologizing for that would seem so self serving.  I mean granted I’m definitely the centre of the universe (or at least in close proximity) but I don’t want to seem like a blow hard.

IN THE NEWS:

some Nigerian dude tried to down a plane.  This really isn’t interesting to me and so I really don’t have a lot to say about it.  What’s more interesting to me is the reaction of others and the response by nations which have done so much to attempt an increase in the effectiveness of their security at the expense of our rights.  It was the passengers and airline staff that caught this guy near the end of the flight, not the government which has done so much to intercept crazy idiots like this.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on a terror watch list and from what I understand, it had been reported to the American authorities that he had been “radicalized” before the incident on Northwest Airlines flight 253.  everything was there and available for a paranoid nation to pounce on some one who likely had every intention of killing a bunch of people.  Oddly enough, in a post 9/11 world with hypersensitive and bloated law enforcement agencies running around in every corner of the country, not a single American saw fit to track this guy down and stop him from flying.

I think a part of this is linked in great part to an incredibly unjustified and unmanageable domestic security policy on the part of the United States.  It’s almost a schizophrenic kind of policy really.  in an attempt to make the nation free, people have to give up some general freedoms and bow to the wishes of the state who knows how best we must manage our security.  I dunno…I could make some hay of this one but three paragraphs is enough.  i guess I just don’t think this hypersensitive security stuff works and this is perhaps proof positive of that.

MUH TWUCK!:

My purple beast (No, not that one) and the trailer is being subjected to it’s biannual inspection.  Oddly enough, it seems it will only cost a few thousand dollars.  I was expecting it to a be a tad bit worse but hey, it’s all good.

I’ve been at home enjoying the holiday season by doing a lot of nothing and trying to figure out how much of something I can eat before it makes me sick.

This coming summer, I have a decision to make.  Should I lease a truck for a few months to add on to a second contract that is seasonal or buy another older truck to run the highway and attempt to find more work for it later on?  All in all, I really just want to figure out what will be the least amount of headache.

APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT?!

Earlier on (about two posts back) I posted that I would be funding a $5,000 KIVA lending account to help stimulate economic activity in third world nations.  unfortunately, I will not be able to live up to the commitment and I feel especially bad about that since some one by the name of Gary was inspired to find his own account due to my posting.

I got caught up in my own glee and was just ecstatic about being able to help people in a far off land in such a practical and ethical manner.  I kind of threw other considerations to the wind such as insurance premiums, cost of equipment repairs, unexpected work stoppages and so on.  As a result, I am only going to be able to fund a $1,000 account in the new year but I sincerely hope that over this coming year, I’ll be able to add to that amount in a very significant manner.

So, I do apologize to anyone who read my post regarding a $5,000 commitment to fund a KIVA lending account.  I can only live up to 20% of that obligation and I do honestly feel terrible about that.

UGANDA:

I’ve been hearing a lot about Uganda recently and have been horrified about the content of what I’ve heard.  If you haven’t heard recently, the Ugandan parliament is set to pass a bill that would include the death penalty for homosexuals “convicted” of certain homosexual acts.

Now, this has managed to stir up a lot of angry discussion and I’ve very glad to see religious groups, conservative groups, and others give it a wholesale kind of condemnation.  Sweden is even threatening to remove foreign aid should the bill pass.  Though no one has been convicted of homosexual acts in Uganda, (Anti-homosexual laws are already on the books) this kind of law would make it entirely possible for hate filled people driven by fear and ignorance to take the lives of people for absolutely no good reason what so ever.

what is perhaps most disturbing is that religious groups inside Uganda are pushing the bill like it’s in danger of going out of style…which it already has one would hope.  Showing how dangerous religious ignorance can be, there are even Christian leaders in the nation who fervently believe that Uganda should cut diplomatic relations with other countries that want Uganda to accept homosexuals as regular citizens like every one else.  In other words, if the world isn’t as backward thinking as yourself, ignore it and cut down the number of dissenting voices you will hear.  Ignorance knons no enemy like diverse opinion and intellectual exploration.

Only the most horrid, wicked and vile people could talk of loving homosexuals and propose their potential death at the same time as Ugandan Member of Parliament David Behati does.  He is a rotten human being who has both accepted the responsibility of leadership among his people and cast aside any semblance of responsible intelligent thinking.  He and his ilk are frankly a disgrace.

ARROW TRUCKING (Tulsa, OK):

I realize that this will not affect many people but it hits close to home for those in my chosen field of work.

Imagine working for a company and being given no hint that you’re about to be laid off.  Imagine being hundreds of miles away from home and finding out quite suddenly that you are laid off.  imagine that you find out not via a short meeting, a phone call or even a text message.  Imagine finding out when you make your own phone call to ask why your fuel card doesn’t work as you stand next to a fuel pump with a near empty fuel tank.  No one’s on the other end, just a short recorded message telling you to turn in your truck to get a bus ticket to get back home.

This is how hundreds of drivers found out that their employer, Arrow Trucking out of Tulsa Oklahoma, had laid them off.  It’s a terribly cruel manner of telling people that their jobs are no longer there.

Larger companies that operate on paper thin profit margins can experience huge upsets when the price of fuel changes by only a few cents.  for drivers, this puts them at risk of losing their jobs at any minute should they be working for a company that is unable to absorb increased costs of business in a very competitive field.  That being said, poor management is often the reason for larger firms not being able to absorb said costs.

I’m quite sad to hear of the fate suffered by Arrow Trucking drivers.  I sincerely hope that many of them aren’t caught in an employment gap because of this.  As for Doug Peilsticker, the former owner of the now defunct company, I hope that he is properly called out for letting his company go to shambles after the reputable stewardship it was privileged to under his late father Jim.

On the plus side, I did hear of a number of companies seeking out the laid off drivers as priority hires and others seeking out Arrow Trucking drivers at truck stops offering up sandwiches or even assistance getting home.

MORE MARIJUANAPHOBIC MORONS:

Recently, a study was published that suggested that cannabis use in adolescents may have irreversible long term negative affects.  Linking cannabis use to schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, the authors concluded that cannabis use possibly disrupts the development of the serotonin and norepinephrine systems in growing young folk.

The trick?  They weren’t studying THC or cannabanoids present in cannabis.  They tested the effects of a chemical called WIN55,212-2.  If you’re wondering what it is, it’s something that causes the body to react in ways that are similar to how one would react if one ingested a similar cannabnoid found in cannabis but to a much more notable degree.  It is structured entirely differently than any cannabanoid found in cannabis and comparing it to THC is kind of like comparing apples to oranges concluding that since both are fruits, they must be the same.

I’m awfully tired of this horrid and desperate want within the scientific community to find facts that support an agenda.  Whether it be about drugs or creation science, I really am becoming resentful of scientists who claim to be ethical while engaging in study that is plainly deceptive and often driven by an agenda.

Could people just get over weed already?  Please?

So there it is…about a month worth of blogging or so.  there’s more but my fingers are bleeding.  G’night!