Over in Ottawa, the federal government is becoming saturated with off-topic back and forth jarring over Peter MacKay and Belinda Stronach. This is an interesting story that goes back a long time now. They used to be a couple but that ended when Belinda left the conservatives and joined up with the Liberals. So much for commitment. Time goes on but it doesn’t seem to heal any of Peter’s wounds. Now last week, a tape and transcript of a conversation show up with MacKay allegedly calling Belinda a dog. So now the government is going back and forth on whether he should be appologizing to her for his comments. He denies making the comments and will not appolgize, and the Prime Minister, Steven Harper, fully supports him. Now, hopefully, the speaker has closed the matter saying he did not hear the comment. That begs the question, what if he had heard the comment? Does that mean the government should spend its time discussing some name calling? What about the more important things that should be worked on like legislation and debate? The outcome now is almost certain, MacKay will continue to deny it since changing his mind now will lead to accusations of lieing. Most likely in the next week, something new will come up for all the politicians to get distracted by!
15 of the Ugliest Hockey Logos Ever
In honour of Buffalo’s new ‘buffaslug’ logo, here is a list of 15 mostly non-NHL logos that will burn your retinas. The worst must be the spur-enabled hockey skate (blade-enabled cowboy boot?) from the Denver Spurs. See above example!
I’m glad that the Toronto Maple Leafs are nowhere near that list. Overall, I agree with every selection on that list and I can’t believe people would actually have chose some of those logos.
Google Links Blog Search to Google News
Some time over the weekend Google put links to Google Blog Search on the front page of Google News and at the end of each news search results page. This minor change is just the kind of integration of services the company has said it was going to focus on; something Sergey Brin might call a “feature not a product.”
I have a feeling that these new links will increase traffic to blogging site tremendously as people search for recent news. People enjoy reading the news articles to get the facts and then can see different points of view by reading the blogs. It should be win-win-win for bloggers, readers, and Google.
Formula One 2006 Season Finished
Yesterday was the final race of the season. It took place in Brazil and fittingly was won in the end by a Brazilian. The race carried with it a lot at stake. Fernando Alonso was almost assured the title but nothing was guaranteed. If Alonso didn’t finish in the points and Michael Schumacher finished first then Schumacher would have won the driver’s championship. Luckily, for Alonso, he was able to finish the race and easily bring it home to second place. Schumacher had some bad luck on around the 9th lap when he made a pass and he had some contact and his tire was damaged. This resulted in a long lap and a pit stop. This put him back to last place and 70 seconds back from the front, pretty much killing all chances of his remote championship. He did make a valiant effort and posted some of the best laps of the race. He ended up 4th place. A great showing and performance for his last ever race in a Formula one car. So long Michael, have fun being retired now. This was also the last race for a lot of drivers with their respective cars. Next season there is going to be a lot of juggled drivers in different cars. The most shocking is going to be Alonso moving to Mercedes. This will make it very hard to 3-pete as champion. This was also the last race for Michelin as a tyre manufacturer. Next season, there is only going to be Bridgestone. Overall, a great season of motor sports!
Weekend Report
This weekend is setting up to be not bad at all. This will be the final weekend of Formula one of the season with a battle down in Brazil. Alonso looks like he is on his way to repeat as Driver Champion but as always look out for surprises. The Riders won their game against Toronto, 13 – 9, and are on their way to finish at or above 500 this season. Not bad, but then again the fans in Saskatchewan were expecting better. They will play one more regular season game before heading to Calgary for the playoffs. Should be a lot of fun. The Leafs won against Columbus, 4 – 2. It was a good game with a scoring coming from 4 different players. Nice job by Wellwood who has looked really sharp this season so far. Toronto is in a tough division this season, with Buffalo starting off really hot so far with a 7 game winning streak. Is it too early to clinch a playoff spot? Well most likely, but I am willing to predict Buffalo will be there.
First Drive to Work
Today was the first day I drove my car to work. I didn’t have any troubles at all which is to be expected now that I have almost driven the car 150km. The road to work in the morning consists of a fair amount of traffic and the occasional unexpected emergency maneavor to avoid a collision. Luckily I didn’t have anything like that this morning. So far, the Honda Civic has impressed me with its handling abilities. It really seems to stick to the road and goes precisely where you want it to go. Next up, I’m going to have to get the undercoating put on at the dealership and I think I’m going to ask about window tint. I think some window tint would add to the darkness about the car.
SQL Server DB Dev Interview Questions
Tim Chapman presents his standard set of baseline technical questions he asks SQL Server database developers during an interview. These questions will help you weed out less-qualified candidates. Having read the questions, I can see how the material from my CS375 (Database Systems) class is going to help me out if I ever decide to get a job as a database developer.
Super Solvers: OutNumbered!
I just had a flashback from a long time ago. I remembered the games I used to play on the computer. The one that came to mind was from The Learning Company called Super Solvers: OutNumbered! This was a great game that challenged the gamer to search through the Shady Glen Television Station to collect clues to find the Master of Mischief. I remember that when you walked around the station, a tv called telly would catch you and you would have to do a math problem to escape. It was all good fun and I remember I played it quite a bit. I am going to check and see if I am still able to play the game now.
Sirius Internet Radio
On Monday October 16, 2006 Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced that the launch of SIRIUS Internet Radio (SIR), a CD quality internet only version of its radio service. The service will include more than 75 channels of Sirius programming, without the use of any equiptment, all for the price of $12.95 per month. To launch the service, Sirius is having two free days of service on October 25, and 26. This will include all of Sirius’s 100% commercial free music stations, talk, entertainment, sports, and not to mention The Howard Stern Show. They are touting this as the first time that Howard has been available to a worldwide audience.
For more details on the announcement, you can see can take a look at the press release from Sirius.
Indoor Soccer
Last night was the season opener for the indoor soccer season. Again for this season I am playing on a White City team and we look like we will be a strong team. The game for indoor is a lot faster and more physical. Although there are no slide tackles there is a lot of body to body collisions. For the season opener, White City played AC Deportivo, in a game that we should have won. The opponents didin’t possess much in the way of skill or talent. We had a 2 to 0 lead through most of the game but near the end we gave up the two goals to end up with a tie. The turning point had to have been when a player on Deportivo headbutted Mark after the play. This was completely uncalled for and should not be found in sports. Hopefully further consequences will arise as a result of his actions.