Grab Bag

G

I feel great when I feel that I’m useful, that I’m productive and doing something that will truly help. I’m sure most others feel the same way. That being said, today truly is a grab bag of stuff.

First off, Geoff has a job in the Waterloo area, so I’m asking if anyone knows a place he can rent out it (esp. among fellow CompEs) it would be great. Spread the word. So if, you have a handle on a place he can stay – let him/me know. The info will get to him. Thanks!

Amazon and Canada Post must be doing brisk business. I’ll have to say, that for all their faults, Canada Post seems to be making some good business moves. Building Purolator capitalizes on people’s desire for fast, trackable delivery (not to mention the fact that signatures at each end guarantee cover your assability). Teaming with Amazon ensures that they get a foothold in the ecommerce industry (I’m fully convinced that ecommerce is the way to go for certain classes of products). And of course – who can forget junk mail and catalogs, the mainstay (probably now) of the ‘normal’ post system. All in all, they seem to be covering their bases. I wonder if they’re actually profitable.

It’s good to hear that the EFF has made headway against Diebold. The utter gall of that company to try and shut down commentary on its _plainly_ defective and IMO poorly designed electronic voting systems is…breathtaking. And of course, to top it all off, they tried to use the DMCA to do it. Man. But it reminds me – donate to the EFF!. They’re often at the forefront of a lot of the activism and the issues that take place in the technical arena. As soon-to-be engineers a lot of us seek complacency in ignoring the larger technical issues around us. This is _not good_. Although we may not have the time to get involved in these issues, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves on what effect laws, coroporations and individuals are having in our field. If you can’t donate the time – donate the money to people who will fight to keep the freedoms we currently enjoy safe for the future. Cause I do believe, once laws pass, unbreaking them will be much, much harder…

3 comments

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  • DAMMIT! If only Spielman had known about the job a month ago. He coulda rented the room of my girlfriend’s roommate. Instead my girlfriend’ll be living with this random Sys Design student. I’d feel better if it were someone I knew, and I figured that Spielman would be a good roommate, and he’s a nice guy. Oh, well. I’ll keep a look out for other rooms, but that would’ve been great.

  • A friend from highschool is subletting his place for the winter term. See the following:

    > Hey Rob,
    Just wondering if you know anyone who’s looking for a sublet for Winter 2004. I’m trying to sublet my room. It’s a larger room in a 5-room townhouse at 117 Churchill St. If you know anyone who might be interested, could you give them my email address (lmzgrabl@uwaterloo.ca)?
    Thanks,
    Leonard

  • Don’t worry about it Paul. Yeah, Geoff’s a very good person to live w/ so it would have been convienient for your girlfriend. She’s would hve pretty much beeen guaranteed a good roommate..

    Ah thanks Rob! I’ll forward the information off the Geoff today.