RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse McNeil

RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse McNeil

The Toronto Sun has reported that RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse McNeil has been recommended for the Governor General’s Officer of the Order of Merit award, specifically for his work on the G20. That’s right, the G20 where over a thousand people were arrested, none convicted, even though at least one is still in prison (and it appears that Bryon Sonne’s arrest may not have been legal).

The concept of awarding any officer an award, for any involvement in the G8/G20 fiasco is beyond the pale.

If you feel like I do, email the Governor General. Make your point politely. No one should be rewarded for that mess.

Regards

Wayne Borean

Sunday January 30, 2011

Regime Change In Egypt And Undercover Police Actions

(Cartoon) Mubarak shuts down Internet! #Egypt will shut down Mubarak! #Jan25 @haroon_siddique

In Egypt, once again, we see the police siding with the government against the people.

Microsoft Death Watch – 10Q Partial Update

Microsoft has filed their most recent 10Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, you can read it here. Due to a variety of things happening, I’m running a bit behind on the spreadsheet with the numbers, however there’s a couple of things that are easily noticeable.

Revenue is up 4.7% over three months, which is really quite good considering what the economy is like. At least it looks good at first. When you look at the six month figures, it looks even better, at an 11.6% increase. Hey, that’s hot.

But then we get into the fun stuff, which is why I need to get working on that spreadsheet.

Operating income is down 4% over three months, but up 15% over six months! What’s going on?

It appears that costs are outstripping revenue increases. They are up 9.2% over the last six months, and up 10.8% over the last three months.

If we look at the Net Income figures (after taxes), they show a 15% increase over the last six months, and a 0.4% drop over the last three months, so the net figures aren’t as bad due to a huge drop in taxes.

So what exactly is going on? That’s why I need the spreadsheet. Something is happening. But is it a one time hit, or is it the start of the drop that I’ve been predicting? I don’t know yet.

But I’m looking forward to checking this out. I’ll bet that you didn’t know that accounting is fun 🙂

Regards

Wayne Borean

Saturday January 29, 2011

CRTC Ruling In Favor of Usage Based Billing May Kill Bell And Rogers

Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission

I don’t think that the Government realizes exactly how much trouble the recent Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decision is going to cause. I don’t think that the CRTC understood what they were doing. And I don’t think that Bell and Rogers realize how badly this is going to backfire on them.

The Provenance of Florian Müller – Part 2

Florian Müller Profile on Blogger

Interesting morning. It appears that I’ve struck a nerve. My article The Provenance of Florian Müller has upset Florian Müller.

Bandwagon Jumping In Ottawa – Former Tunisian Regime Not Welcome In Canada

Tunisia courtey of Sakurambo

I’m a cynical old bastard at the best of times, so Prime Minister Harper’s recent announcement that:

Canada will use all tools at its disposal to co-operate with the international community in dealing with members of the former regime. They are not welcome, let me be very clear, we do not welcome them in our country.

about the recent Tunisian governmental changes left me signally unimpressed. While I agree with his statement, his ‘Conversion on the road to Damascus’ is suspect.

I agree. We don’t want or need the kleptomaniacal members of the ‘former Tunisian regime’ in Canada. But where the hell has our Prime Minister been hiding for the last two weeks? While Tunisians have fought for their freedom, Stephen Harper appears to have made no comments until now. In fact searches do not turn up any comments by him on Tunisia in the past. Ever. Curious that.

Even the staid and slow Globe and Mail noticed – We’re okay with dictators – until they’re toppled their headline reads.

So Stephen Harper – where have you been since the crisis started?

And lest anyone thinks Michael Ignatief is better, think again. He hadn’t said anything either. In fact the only politico that comes out of this looking at all good is Jack Layton. He made a statement on Tuesday January 11, over two weeks ago!

While I’m glad to see that Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatief are keeping up with their Participaction Goals by bandwagon jumping, some help to the Tunisian people, oh, say, five years ago would have saved lives.

Politicians. Can’t live with them. Can’t use them for targets during hockey practice.

Regards

Wayne Borean

Thursday January 27, 2011

The Provenance of Florian Müller – Updated

Florian Müller Profile on Blogger

Florian Müller (the English spelling of Müller is Mueller) has a problem. He has no provenance. To quote Wikipedia:

Provenance, from the French provenir, “to come from”, means the origin, or the source of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object.^[1] The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing. Typical uses may cover any artifact found in archaeology, any object in paleontology, certain documents (such as manuscripts), or copies of printed books. In most fields, the primary purpose of provenance is to confirm or gather evidence as to the time, place, and — when appropriate — the person responsible for the creation, production, or discovery of the object. This will typically be accomplished by tracing the whole history of the object up to the present. Comparative techniques, expert opinions, and the results of various kinds of scientific tests may also be used to these ends, but establishing provenance is essentially a matter of documentation.

The problem is, no one really knows who or what Florian Müller is.

Quickie Updates

Libre Office 3.3 Final is now ready for download.  This is fantastic news, and will drive innovation in the Office Suite segment in a way that Open Office never could. If I were Microsoft, I’d be terrified.

PJ has a fantastic comment on Microsoft Florian, apparently she is thinking along the same lines that I am – though she compared him to The SCO Group, whereas I thought that maybe he was working for ADTI. But it does look like he’s working for someone…

Bill C-32 is probably dead. I’ll be publishing an update on my reasoning in a day or so, I’ve been working on Police State Watch, and also on Political Arena (stay tuned, it will be up shortly).

Undercover Coppers are popping up everywhere. There’s still no official confirmation that this happened in Canada, however since it’s happened everywhere else, it probably happened here too.

Anyway, there’s be some interesting stuff published tomorrow.

Regards

Wayne Borean

Tuesday January 25, 2011

Nigerian Scam Version 99.5 – Pretend To Be The FBI

Image courtesy of Janet Galore

I love reading the more creative spam. Some of it’s absolutely hilarious. A long time ago, when UseNet was more active, I used to take part in a NewsGroup dedicated to making fun of spam, and spammers. We put together some truly funny stuff.

My favorite wasn’t actually spam – a researcher who was doing a sociological study on love and sex made the mistake of posting a questionnaire to EVERY alt.sex NewsGroup, including ALT.SEX.CTHULHU. Several of us answered it, taking the roles of Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth (my contribution), and other entities who’s main interest in humans was as a dietary supplement. I wonder to this day what she thought when she saw those responses!

So today I get an email from the FBI…

Police State Watch Canada

I’d started putting this idea together months ago, but between not feeling all that well, things got delayed, so today, Monday January 24th, 2011, is the official opening date of Police State Watch.

The idea came to me after watching some of the G8/G20 coverage in the fall, when it became more clear that certain elements in the police. It was obvious that there was no central place to document what was happening, or compare details.

Let’s consider the case of Alex Hundert, which I first heard of yesterday. I’d heard of Byron Sonne, who is also being held, but I hadn’t heard of Alex, who by the descriptions may have been railroaded.

Who else is still in jail? Who else is being penalized for what the Ontario Ombudsman André Marin has declared the greatest mass violation of rights during peacetime.

So I’ve opened the Police State Watch Wiki as a place to document things that have happened, and are happening.

Feel free to drop in an contribute. I’m only one man, and not in that good of shape anymore, so the Wiki can use all the help it can get.

Wayne Borean

Monday January 24, 2011