Moved to Blogger
I started posting stuff last month on WordPress, because it seemed like a nice place to put my blog. As I mentioned in one of my other posts, I have recently started using Google Apps, and I remembered about this Blogger account that I created three years ago. Since I can easily point my domain (www.timcoleman.com) to a Blogger blog, it only made sense to start posting here instead of on Blogger. That domain name is much nicer than trwcoleman.wordpress.com.
I copied and pasted my posts from WordPress to Blogger. It was really easy. I will try to blog there from now on.
Why I don’t like the upcoming referendum
I received some information about the upcoming Ontario election scheduled for this Autumn, and it reminded me why I’m not happy about the referendum that will be included. The referendum is mostly about whether Ontario should continue with a first-past-the-post system, or change to a mixed member proportional system. Now, I’m all in favour of proportional representation. I think it gives a fairer representation of the people’s desire than a first-past-the-post system, and it allows a broader mix of parties in the Legislative Assembly.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work (from Elections Ontario):
In each electoral district, one vote would be used to elect a ‘Local Member’ using a First-Past-the-Post system. The candidate with the most votes in an electoral district wins.
The other vote would be for a political party. Votes for parties will be used to determine the number of ‘List Members’ each party gets. This is the proportional representation part.
Sounds pretty good, right? You get to vote for a local member, and there are some extra seats that are selected by popular vote. Well, here’s the thing. There are 90 seats to be selected as local members, and 39 seats to be selected as list members. That’s a total of 129 seats, which is almost as many as the 130 seats that existed before the PC Party was elected in 1995. The Legislative Assembly current has 103 members. So, if this measure were to be implemented, an additional 26 seats would be added to the house. After the latest pay raise voted in by the Legislature, a member of provincial parliament (MPP) earns a salary of $110,575 per year, before benefits. Over a four year term, this change would cost over $11,000,000 in salary alone! There are also additional costs in benefits, expenses and pensions for the additional members.
So, we are left with a choice between the existing system, which doesn’t give a fair representation, or a proportional system at the cost of millions of dollars. If we vote against a proportional system, how likely is it that we will be asked again? If we vote for it, how likely is it that the number of members will return to the level that we see today?
Wow, Google Apps is really really cool!
I have been thinking lately about how much of a pain it is to run my own mail server. Well, it really runs itself, but it’s annoying that I have to rely on my computer being on all the time, and my Internet connection being up all the time. The latter isn’t a problem (my ISP is pretty reliable), but the former is becoming more and more of an issue the older my computer gets. I’m also interested in energy conservation, and the next major hurdle there is figuring out a way to not run my computer 24/7.
Enter gmail. I was just browsing around last night, and I found something about Google apps for your domain. I have had a gmail account for some time now, but I don’t use it because it has a long and awkward name, and I already have my own vanity domain. I didn’t know that I could transfer my domain e-mail to gmail, and it would work just the same as it does now. Just the same, except for the fact that Google handles it, and I can access my e-mail over the Web from work. Up until this point, I would read my e-mail through ssh, using mh as my e-mail client. From home, I can use POP3 if I want to even bother downloading the e-mail from Google.
Wow. It was incredibly easy to set up, and I can get my e-mail from anywhere without having to connect to home, or even having my home computer on. I’m going to try it for a while before transferring e-mail for the other domain over to gmail. If all goes well, I could reconfigure her e-mail client to get the mail from Google and she wouldn’t even notice! I probably won’t do that though, because that would involve messing around with her e-mail settings, and she would probably be annoyed about me doing that without letting her know.
Now I really want a Wii
Since last year, I’ve been talking about how I would like to get a Wii. Usually, I end up saying that I’ll consider it when the price drops. With the continuing lack of availability of the console, and demand outstripping supply, I find it hard to believe that there will be any sort of price drop in the near future. Definitely not before this holiday season. At the same time, I have seen what will probably push me over the edge to Wii fandom: Guitar Hero III.
William turns 3
Yesterday was my son’s third birthday. I can’t believe that he is three already. I was looking at some old pictures from the last few years and I was remembering when he was as small as Nathan is now. Then I was remembering when he was small enough to cradle in one arm. Now, the only time I hold him in one arm is when both kids are refusing to listen to me and I need to carry them somewhere quickly. Usually it involves kicking legs and a bit of screaming.
What’s he going to be like when he’s in school? When he’s a teenager? When he’s an adult? I don’t know. I can only hope that he turns out to be a good person and that the world is still a safe place to live in.
This whole parenting thing really changes the way you look at the world. All of a sudden there are so many things you need to protect your children from. There are also so many adventures in store, trivial things that you don’t really think much about become so much bigger when you have small children. I took William out fishing on Saturday; we only went for a few hours, and we were sitting out in the open, but it was still a ton of fun. Of course we didn’t catch anything (his line didn’t even have a hook on it), but we did get closer to each other. I can’t help but get a bit sentimental about all the moments in a day that are firsts for him. I will remember them for the rest of my life.
Allow me to introduce myself
It’s interesting to see how what comes around goes around in the online world as well as in real life. When I started using
the Internet as a newbie at university back in 1995, one of the first things I figured out how to do was to make my own Web page. The type of pages that a lot of people created back then are similar in concept to what people calls blogs today. Sure, it was HTML 3.2 and I edited it with vi (not even vim!), and the content was boring (who really wants to read about what classes I like and which ones I hate), but it was my own slice of the Web.
For the last twelve years, on and off, I have tried to get back to telling my life story on the Web, but it always ends in failure, trapped between not having time to write about the minutiae of my daily life, and not wanting to expose myself to strangers. This blog is another attempt of this sort.
To briefly introduce myself, my name is Tim Coleman, and I am an Internet addict. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I am an administrator at Wikipedia, I work for a company which produces Web-based software, and I am a member of a few online forums. I run my own Web site and e-mail at home, but this is a bit more reliable than that. I have two small boys, and thus I take a lot of pictures with my digital camera. Basically, I’m online almost all the time. If I had a BlackBerry, I would never sleep.
Some worthwhile links:
My user page on Wikipedia
My photo gallery site
My employer
