THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

I have decided to move my blog from Blogspot over to a self hosted Wordpress blog.

The new location for my blog is - The Rambling Canuck

Hope to see you there !

Install Leopard on your PC in 3 easy steps!

Well as you probably already know Max OS X 10.5 or as it is better known 'Leopard' was officially released yesterday by Apple and already there are patches up that will allow you to run it on a Windows based PC.

Want to try out the amazing Mac operating system but don't want to buy a Mac well this is the way.

Good step by step instructions available here but in all honesty I haven't tried it out and won't as I am using a Mac. Now I understand the desire to try out the best desktop OS going but any of the the steps mentioned are at your own risk.

DON'T TRY THIS ON A MACHINE THAT YOU NEED!

Sympatico Total Internet

Well I did what I had sworn I would never do - I have gone back to Bell Sympatico for my connectivity.

Not that Bell had bad service or anything before but I was tired of having everything with one company - internet, home phone and cell phone. I looked around and found better or similar deals for the services. I moved my home phone to Skype, and internet to Cogeco but kept my cell phone with Bell due to the absolutely ridiculous contract breaking fees.

Anyway that is in the past. This week I got a flyer in the mail about Bell Sympatico deals and found that I could get DSL service for $19.95 per month for the first three months and then up to $49.95 a month. Not a bad deal for the first three months but $10 more per month than I was paying Cogeco for my cable connection.

I figured I would call and see what they offered. I mentioned that I was currently with Cogeco and they offered me the same deal but instead of $49.95 per month I got it at $34.95 - the same price as what I was paying Cogeco and they would throw in a free combo modem/wireless router.

OK, I was sold and agreed to the plan.

So the package arrived today and the install went smoothly and I was up and running in about 10 minutes. Everything is good so far.

Here are the problems that I found. In all of sheets and booklets of instructions they never once provided the IP address for the router so I could go in and change the default WEP encryption to a standard that a 5 year old couldn't break in 10 minutes. A quick phone call to the help desk and I got the IP address of the router (192.168.2.1) but much to my surprise it wasn't passworded!

They never mentioned anywhere in the manuals how to connect to the router or that it might not be a bad idea to put a password on the router. Granted, they at least put some sort of encryption on the wireless idea but no mention that this standard was very poor and easily broken and should be changed along with the SSID of Bell355.

More and more I am convinced that there is a huge market out there for someone to start promoting a 'secure your wireless' service.

SCUG Meeting Notes - October General Meeting

This is another post to provide details on the SCUG General Meeting presentation that I did on October 24th on Google.

As one can imagine Google is not a topic that can be covered in great detail in 40 minutes so I limited myself to just an overview of the following Google services:

• iGoogle
  
• NoteBook
  
• Calendar
  
• Docs
  

In addition to these main areas I also briefly discussed some of the Firefox extensions that can be used with the above, namely GSpace and a Google Calendar extension called Better GCal.

I also discussed (briefly) about Firefox's ability to allow for multiple profiles. Very useful if you have more than one person using the same computer or you wish to set Firefox for mulitple tasks.

For example, I use Firefox for normal browsing and working on my sites. For the work side I have tons of extensions installed to make life a bit easier that are not required for normal browsing, so I have set up different profiles for each. I also have set up a profile for use when I am not sitting in my office and am connecting thru a wifi hotspot or other non-secure location. Beats having to continually change settings etc.

More info on using profiles in Firefox can be found in this great post on the LifeHacker blog.

For those that aren't Google fanatics like myself then there are lots of other opportunities to use online applications for just about anything. A good post about options can be found here.

As always, please feel free to add your comments, suggestions, raving compliments (but no flames please) to the comments area below.

Cool FireFox Tricks

Since you are already using Firefox as your primary web browser, I thought I would share this story with you.

LifeHack has a great article today about 15 of the coolest Firefox tricks ever. As an avid Firefox user I figured I knew all of the coolest tricks but gave the article a quick scan anyways.

I was wrong! There are some really cool tricks in that post. For example:

11. Add a keyword for a bookmark. Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.

I didn't know that and it is great time saver. I use bookmarks to quickly find sites that I go to often. Now I don't need to scroll thru all my bookmarks I just enter the keyword and hit enter. Nothing could be simpler or quicker.

Check out the other tips and if you have a tip that you would like to share please add a comment to this post.

Oh, and if you are one of the unlucky ones that isn't using Firefox yet get Firefox from here and try it. You will like it!

SCUG Meeting Notes

Ok, this post is a little unusual as it really isn't a post but a quick and easy way for me to send meeting notes to members of the Sarnia Computer Users' Group who attended tonight's Windows SIG Meeting where I gave a presentation on setting up a wireless router.

As with most meetings where the audience can actively participate we veered a little off of the main topic but it was enjoyable and entertaining.

Here are links that were mentioned tonight. (If I forgot any please add them in the comments section).

- The Wireless Networking Starter Kit - this is eBook that I mentioned that is a free downloadable PDF copy of the second edition of this book by Adam C. Engst and Glenn Fleishman. You can download it here.

- ShieldsUp - The Internet's quickest, most popular, reliable and trusted, free Internet security checkup and information service. And now in its Port Authority Edition, it's also the most powerful and complete. Check your system here, and begin learning about using the Internet safely. Access it here.

- Mozy Back Up Software - I use this software to automatically back up my files. Great software easy to use and best of all very cheap @ $4.95 per month. Home page here.

- WEP vs WPA encryption - Here are a couple of links that talk about the differences between the 2 and why WPA is much more secure. Link 1 (PCMag) and Link 2 (Wifi Alliance) and Link 3 is a video from YouTube showing how to set up a wireless router. You can watch it below.

Here is a new link on the BBC website talking about how broken WEP actually is.




We also talked a bit about password managers and here is a link to the one that I use on the Mac side. For those of you on that other platform, I did a quick search and found these:

1 - Password Agent is an easy-to-navigate password management program that allows you to store all your passwords, secret notes and data snippets in a single, secure database. Commercial

2 - I found this link which shows many different freeware applications to manage your passwords.

3 - The link that Paul mentioned at GRC (the same people that bring us ShieldsUp).

Ok I think that just about covers it. If there is anything that I missed please add a comment using the link below so that we can share the info among all members.

Alternative Energy in Ontario

As a follow up to my post about the excessive pollution in the Sarnia-Lambton area of Southwestern Ontario last week, I wanted to highlight what the Ontario government is doing in the area of alternative energy sources.

The Ontario government has given approval for the largest solar farm in North America and one of the largest in the world. Once complete in 2010 it will produce 40 megawatts of power which is enough to power between 10,000 and 15,000 homes on sunny days.

The current world record-holder is the 12-megawatt Erlasee solar park in Germany, though another 40-megawatt park is under construction in the same region. The largest U.S. project so far announced is a 15-megawatt solar system to be built at an air force base in Nevada and last fall, the Australian government announced funding for a proposed 154-megawatt solar power plant to be built in Victoria state and expected to be fully operational by 2013.

The Ontario Power Authority has agreed to purchase the electricity under a 20-year contract that will see the clean power go into the provincial grid. But compared to coal, nuclear power, even wind, solar's squeaky-clean image comes at a high price. OptiSolar is selling the electricity to the province under its new standard offer program, which pays a premium for electricity that comes from small-scale renewable projects. In the case of wind, it's 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. Solar fetches 42 cents per kilowatt hour, nearly four times as much.

The premium may seem high but is justified given the environmental benefits. Solar power is clean power with no harmful emissions created during the production unlike coal or nuclear power. Publicly stated costs of nuclear power and fossil fuels never reflect environmental costs, health impacts, and industry subsidies.

This project represents only a small part of Ontario's total energy consumption. Last year, Ontario had a peak demand of 27,000 megawatts but it is a start in the right direction.

Blog Action Day Update

As I posted on September 1st, this upcoming Monday is Blog Action Day.

There are currently over 8800 blogs signed up to post on that day about the environment. I still haven't finalized what I will be posting about but I found it interesting that the Toronto Star posted an article about how terrible the Sarnia area is for smokestack emissions. In fact, Sarnia is so bad that it produced more than 16.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2005 alone. This represents more than one fifth of Ontario’s total industrial greenhouse gas emissions and more than the Province of British Columbia for the same period.

If that isn't enough, the study also claims a cluster of petrochemical plants in the Sarnia area released more dangerous chemicals in 2005 than all the industries in Manitoba, New Brunswick or Saskatchewan. The findings include a high rate of asbestos-related diseases among Sarnia workers and a leukemia rate among young women that is double the provincial rate.

I also find it a little co-incidental that this study was released less than 1 week before a provincial election and helps highlight one (of many) hot button issues that the current government has to deal with. They had promised that all coal burning plants in Ontario would be closed by 2007 - a campaign promise from the 2003 election. One fifth of Ontario's electricity supply is generated by burning coal.

So it seems that I am spoiled for choice when blogging on the environment in respect to the Sarnia-Lambton area and Ontario at large.

Make sure to check back next week and see what I finally decide for a topic.

Updates

Ok, I am guilty again of not keeping this up to date but in my defense I have been very busy!

Not only have been able to get rid of 4 garbage bags of old and unused clothing to Goodwill, go to Spanish lessons 3 nights a week, go to the YMCA every day, bowling once a week but I have also created two new websites. One directed at anyone into crafts such as quilting, rug hooking, working with beads etc at The Craft Directory. The other site is an add-on area for one of my existing sites (Latest Lottery Numbers) to detail and assist other lottery players find and use the best tools out there for reducing the odds against them at Lottery Tools.

This month doesn't look to be any slower. In addition to the normal stuff mentioned above I already have another site in the works dealing with travel (more on this site later), I have to a presentation for the local computer user's group on Google and it's many applications. Not to mention that with the 2 new sites created last month I have increased my work load just keeping them up to date and increasing their search engine rankings.

My major goal this month is keep this blog up to date and to start using Twitter more to keep people informed on what is happening. If you haven't heard of Twitter before there is a really good primer posted by Robin Good over at his blog.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Rev Can on the prowl

A story posted yesterday on the Globe And Mail web site states that the Canada Revenue Agency is now trolling eBay Canada for high volume sellers — looking to make sure eBay's biggest users are accurately reporting their income. They've successfully gotten a court order for the names, addresses, and other personal information for that website's biggest users.

'Canadians spend about $5-billion online each year and eBay is by far the largest electronic marketplace, accounting for about a quarter of the total sales. The site was visited by nearly 11 million Canadians in August, according to company figures. The CRA said in court filings that it is targeting people who qualified for eBay's PowerSeller program in 2004 and 2005. Only top eBay sellers can qualify for the program, which provides benefits to members. Those benefits include prioritized customer service, special promotions and sales tips.'

Not that I sell anything on eBay but I do know lots of people that do and while I don't know if they are PowerSellers or not, if it was me I would be making sure that I had receipts for tons of expenses.

A new blog widget

I have just added a new widget to my blog (down on the right hand side) to help publicize my blog.

BlogRush is a new, free service that allows you to earn points by displaying a widget of related, recent blog posts from other BlogRush members, and in return being advertised yourself. All you need is a name, a blog and an XML feed URL. If you have a blog, give it a try. Can't hurt to get some free publicity..

Free Online Backups

Everybody knows that they should backup their computer on a regular basis, right?. The question is how many actually do?

Well to be totally honest, I have always been a bit lax in backing up my personal machine. It was always too time consuming to locate all of the files that I needed to backup and then sorting thru to find the ones that had been updated. Then of course was finding the right media to backup onto. Should I use an old hard drive that I have lying around or maybe a few CDs or even a DVD? Not to mention the dilemma on where to store my backups? Should I just leave them in my desk drawer, put them into a safety deposit box, give them to a friend to hold just in case the house is broken into and all my computer stuff is stolen?

Well I have found a solution! Online Backups. No more worrying about any of the above and best of all I have found one that offers great services for free (2GB of data). Of course, there is a paid version (unlimited data for $4.95 a month) as well which I purchased.

The service is called Mozy and is available for Mac and Windows users. It is easy to set up, do it once and forget it as backups in the background.

The $5 per month is no big deal but I get piece of mind that my data is backed up and also encrypted (448-bit Blowfish encryption) so I know it is safe.

If you are looking for a good free backup solution give Mozy a try.

If you are running a blog, check out my post about backing up my blog.

Net Stuff

As many of you know that read this little blog, I have quite a few domains registered that I don't actually use. I think of it as investing others may think of it as waste but I do have a plan.

Currently most of those domains just sit and do absolutely nothing, just waiting for me to get around to creating a site for them. Now that in itself is not a bad thing, just a dumb thing. While the domain sits and waits it is actually accessible to the world and my domain registrar gets the traffic. OK, so what is the big deal you ask. Well let me explain it to you. On the landing pages for each of those domains the domain registrar puts a page which is generally called a parking page and on that page is advertiser links usually provided either thru Google Adsense or Yahoo Marketing. In short, they get to use my domain to create revenue. Good for them - not so great for me.

Well I have a solution to this. I have found a great service that for $1 per domain they allow me to park my domains on their servers. They provide relevant content for the domain (based on my keywords) and allow me to not only use my Google Adsense or Yahoo Marketing codes but also I can edit the pages and put in my own Clickbank, Commission Junction, Share-a-sale or other affiliate links. All for $1 per domain!

To see an example of this, look at a domain that I set up in 10 minutes - www.calgaryusedcars.ca. Now instead of wasting money every year for the domain name I have turned it into a revenue source with only 10 minutes of work!

Oh, by the way, if you are looking to registrar a new domain - click here to get a new domain name for just $1.99!

Geocaching History in Sarnia

Surprisingly Sarnia has a very active geocaching community. (I say surprisingly as Sarnia has the reputation for not having much to do.)

I spent the day today looking for some of Canada's history. How many of you know that Canada's second Prime Minister is buried in Sarnia? Not only did I get to see an area of Sarnia that I normally don't get to see very often I also got a bit of a history lesson.

In addition, there are military tanks, a Canadair Sabre 6 painted in Golden Hawks colours and the home of the first full-size submarine tunnel built in North America used as locations for geocaching. There are also different series of caches such as the Lambton County Cemetery cache series, the DownRiver series, Sarnia Parks series and even a series of caches focused around Highway 402.

If you need an excuse to get out and do something geocaching in the Sarnia area will definitely keep you busy.

Kiva Update

I was quite surprised to find emails in my mailbox from Kiva stating:

During our most recent audit, we were not able to verify that XXXXXX was the actual recipient of this loan. We are therefore repaying in full the balance. Thank you very much and we hope you will continue to support Kiva and its mission.

This, obviously, caused me some concern. I immediately posted to the Kiva Friends website and got lots of responses very quickly. Several others had also received the same message and where wondering what was going on. All I could think about was fraudulent loans and how the whole setup was a scam.

Well, I was partially right.

I found this post on line from Dr. Kendall Mau the CFO/COO of Prisma Microfinance. Prisma Microfinance is the Micro Finance company that operates in Nicaragua in conjunction with Kiva. His blog is located here.

He wrote:

Last week we discovered a problem with some loans posted on the Kiva website by our General Manager in Nicaragua. How did we notice that he was creating projects that in reality did not exist?

1. An investor asked to visit 2 projects while he was in Nicaragua. Our GM kept putting us off. He was finally forced to admit that the projects really didn't exist.
2. I noticed that our local cash position was not going down which should have happened if loans were being funded.

What was the motive for the fake loans? The GM was given a goal of producing 20 good small business loans per month to list on Kiva. When the GM could not produce enough good loans, he started making them up. It never occurred to him that the two indicators listed above would alert me to his shenanigans.

The only good thing about the whole situation was that the funds for these loans were still in the Kiva payment system and would not have been transferred to us for another 1.5 months. Therefore, the repayment of the loans will reduce the net amount Kiva owes us at the end of September 2007.

Someone on the Friends of Kiva website asked why I did a payback instead of a refund. Two reasons:

1. The Kiva automatic repayment system had already kicked in and grabbed the first month's payment. It gave me balances and I just finished them off.
2. Yesterday, I had trouble reaching my usual contact at Kiva to have her spend 2 hours with me trying to do a refund for each of the 30 loans. Kiva's system does not allow me to do refunds. To get around this obstacle, I just repaid all the loans. Better to get the money back to the investors ASAP than wait around and chase down the Kiva contact to do them for me.

When Chelsa gets back from her African tour, I'll ask her if she can easily switch the 30 loans to the refunded category with one push of the button.

My apologies to all our Kiva lenders. The GM has been dealt with

There are plenty of comments on this issue as well, as one would imagine. Needless to say that I was not impressed as this was my first experience with Kiva.

To their credit however, they did identify the problem and the funds were refunded to my Kiva account which I then moved back into my PayPal account. It took about a week for that to happen and I am now watching my other loans to see if there is a similar problem.

I am not stopping any loans that I had planed to make thru Kiva but I am slowing down until I feel a bit more comfortable with the people on the ground there.

Back to the Routine

Well that summer is over, it is back to the regular routine. For me, one of the things that means is bowling every Thursday night at Marcin Bowl in Point Edward. While I might not be quite ready to go the circuit with the pros of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), I have fun and gives me a night out (and away from the machine for a few hours).

I currently have a 150 average which is the house average as I haven't bowled for a full season yet with this league due to my travels to Nicaragua earlier this year. I am hoping that with playing regularly and getting a little help from "The Ultimate Bowling Guide" I can improve my bowling game. I found this ebook online and it is just $27 so even if only I get one or two tips out of it, it will be worth it.

The other thing that starts next week is the local computer group, SCUG (Sarnia Computer Users Group) with their 3 meetings a month that I attend. There is the Digital Photography Group, the Windows Users Group (which I attend mainly to see how bad Windows is compared to my Mac) and then the General Monthly meeting. I plan on blogging about the group and meetings under a separate tag.

I hope everyone had a great summer - now get back to work ;) Oh and for those that are really interested, I bowled a 143, a 137 and a 172 (in other words right on my average).

September Focus

I have spent some time over the past month reading lots of other's people blogs and web sites on organization etc and just about everyone of them says WRITE IT DOWN!

So this is my first attempt at creating a monthly plan. These are not meant to be extremely detailed action by action lists but more of a way to focus on a particular topic or topics.

This month my plans are to get rid of more stuff that I never use. My plan is to use Freecycle and Goodwill here in Sarnia. Most of the usable items such as TVs, VCRs, computers etc will go on FreeCycle and clothing etc will go to Goodwill.

One of the blogs that I have been following is focused on Minimalist Living. Basically doing more with less. Maybe this is due to my time in Nicaragua but it seems to me that we (residents on the Western world) have too much junk and never use most of it. So why have it?

Sort of hand in hand with the minimalist ideas is to become completely debt free and drop out of the consumer driven lifestyle that I am stuck in. Only buy things that I need right now and can pay cash for. If I don't need it today then I don't buy it and if I can't pay cash then it is off the list.

Obviously there will be some exceptions but that will be the main theme. I will post updates throughout the month to let you know how I am doing.

Wish me luck ;)

Blog Action Day

On October 15th - Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind.

In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment.

What Each Blogger Will Do

Bloggers can participate on Blog Action Day in one of two ways:

1. Publish a post on their blog which relates to an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.

For example: A blog about money might write about how to save around the home by using environmentally friendly ideas. Similarly a blog about politics might examine what weight environmental policy holds in the political arena.

Posts do not need to have any specific agenda, they simply need to relate to the larger issue in whatever way suits the blogger and readership. Our aim is not to promote one particular viewpoint, only to push the issue to the table for discussion.

2. Commit to donating their day’s advertising earnings to an environmental charity of their choice. There is a list of "official" Blog Action Day charities on the site, however bloggers are also free to choose an alternate environmental charity to donate to if they wish.

And that’s it.

If they choose bloggers can also promote the initiative itself. However they are also free to simply post on topic on the right day or discreetly donate to a charity without publicizing Blog Action Day.

Home web hosting

Now that I am now longer in the web hosting business I run my own Linux server in the house. I use it mainly to provide me access from wherever I am to my personal wiki.

Having a personal wiki is great. It provides me a place to store all those little bits of info that I know I will need but don't want to carry around with me. For example it stores my how-to lists for online functions that I rarely use (and therefore don't come easily to mind). It is great when I travel as I don't have to worry about what machine I use or where that machine is located. I can log in and find out the mailing address for friends that I need to send a post card to, how to reboot a troubled server or get that airline membership number so I can get points for side trips that I take on the spur of the moment.

While that sounds rather techy it really isn't. For those that have a cable or dsl connection setting up a server isn't that hard. I have even found a great little reference online for those that are running a windows machine.

For those running a Mac, I found step by step instructions for replacing your .mac account with a local solution. Gives you all the functionality of .mac without the annual fees.

VOIP Phone Service

As most of you know, I ditched Bell Canada with a passion last year and got rid of my DSL line and my phone as well. I went with Vonage Canada for my phone and haven't regretted it.

Now VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) isn't really that new, I was using it when I was in Belgium back in 1996. Granted it wasn't very good and one person could talk at a time but it did the trick. Now I have all the bell's and whistles on my phone line and unlike good old Ma Bell I don't get charged for them, they are all included. I pay a total of $19.95 a month for my phone with 500 long distance minutes anywhere in Canada or the US, call forwarding, voice mail. call display, three way calling etc included.

I did call the service people today and asked about traveling with my phone. I understood that I could take my VOIP router and plug it in when I arrived at my new destination but they told me about a new service they have where the rather large VOIP router is replaced with a little USB key that has the software re-installed. Now I could walk into any internet cafe and plug in the key and call back home to Canada for free! For an added advantage friends could call me at my Canadian number and it would ring wherever the key was installed at no additional cost to the calling party!

It is not often that I write about a service here in a positive light but if you are planning to do any traveling or just want to save a bundle on your monthly phone bill check out Vonage - it is worth a look.

Trying to hit a little white ball

Yesterday was the 1st annual Velvet Rope Golf Invitational Golf Series hosted by the Point Edward Casino. As with the previous 5 years, the event has held at the Huron Oaks Golf Course in Brights Grove, Ontario with a breakfast at the casino.

This year's event was much better than the previous events that I have attended. The dinner was excellent - prime rib with baked potatoes and vegetables and throughout the dinner door prizes were awarded. I think everyone won something. The were also prizes for the most honest team, the team with the best, the golfer with the longest drive and the golfer that was closest to pin on specific holes. The format was a shotgun start (which means that all teams start at the same time from different holes) which was the same as previous years but the weather was better and the team that I was on was great. There are 4 people to a team (3 guests and one staff member). Luckily the other three knew what they were doing and we finished at 5 under par. We felt good about the score but at the dinner afterwards the top team actually finished at 11 under!

At the start of this post I mentioned that this was the 1st annual event but I had been to the previous 5 years events. This amazing feat is accomplished by renaming the event each year.

Geocaching Report

Ok, so I finally got out of the house today by 3 PM. I had selected two different caches that were in the same area down by the Sarnia Bay Marina and Centennial Park (the same place that they hold BayFest every year). Well, in short, it wasn't a very good day. I easily found the areas that the caches were in but I couldn't find them. The gps said that I was within a few meters but no luck. Will have to try another day.

The day wasn't a total waste however, as I took some photos when I was there which you can now see in my photo site located here. I did manage to find a stashed bottle of liquor however.

For those that are interested in trying it out or learning more there is a really good book on Amazon called "Geocaching For Dummies". A good deal at just $16.05.

GeoCaching

One of my goals for this year was to get back into geocaching. Ok so most of you are now asking "What is GeoCaching?" Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps (Global Positioning System) users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

Obviously the first thing that one needs is a gps unit. I got mine online at GPSCity located in Calgary. Ordered it online and it was shipped overnight. The nice thing about buying from a store located outside of Ontario is that I didn't have to pay the PST (a good 7% savings). True I had to pay shipping but there is very little selection in Sarnia for this type of unit so at the very least I would have had to gone to London. I could have ordered it from TigerDirect but then I would have paid the PST.

Ok so I now have my gps unit but how do I find out about a cache to go and find? Easy - just go to the GeoCachng website! It is the 'offical' web site for geocaching around the world and there are literally thousands of cached listed. Each cache has the location, hints to find it, a list of who has found it (or not), a little Yahoo or Google map of the general area etc.

I have found 4 so far and am normally out each weekend looking for more. I will post a little update for each new cache that I find. If you would like to join me or learn more about geocaching, please drop me an email or give me a call.

More Kiva Payments

This week I received repayments for four more Kiva loans that I have made to businesses in Nicaragua.

Granted there is still a lot of money outstanding on these loans but all have made the required monthly re-payments so I am very pleased.

I would recommend this site to anyone who wants to help out hard working people in third world countries.

Losing my Blog - Never Again!

As most of you know I lost my blog earlier this year due to a hacker and me not keeping regular backups.

Now there is nothing that I can do about hackers - they are out there and working to destroy the hard work of others for their twisted sense of accomplishment. What I can control is my back up procedures.

I am the first one to admit that I don't have the discipline back up my blog every day. Too much trouble and I am busy doing other things. Well I found a solution. BlogBackupOnline provides an effortless way to backup, restore, and export your blog.

They currently support the following platforms • Blogger • WordPress • Friendster • LiveJournal • TypePad • Serendipity • Windows Live Spaces • Movable Type • Terapad • Vox • Multiply.

I will post about my experiences with this new system but the signup process is simple and painless and the control panel looks good.

Junk, Junk and More Junk

Ok, maybe not really junk but stuff that I don't need or want anymore.

As the continuing process of divesting myself of non-essential items in preparation for the eventful move south I have spent most of the day today sorting, cleaning and organizing. There is so much stuff that is in great shape and fully functional that I just don't want or need anymore. For example, an office chair, VCR, computers and computer monitors. All of this stuff still works and doesn't make sense to throw it in the garbage.

So I joined FreeCycle.org. Their mission statement reads "Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community." While they state worldwide there is a 'chapter' in just about any place you can think of in the 1st world. Hey if Sarnia has one then everyone is going to have one ;)

A couple of quick emails stating what I have to give away and (hopefully) in the next day or so the stuff will be gone and put to use. I get rid of the junk and someone gets fully usable items for free.

Now as one would imagine there is a lot of strange stuff offered on FreeCycle and Neil Dixon has started a blog documenting just that. Go have a look and be amazed.

House Work

Well we just had some work finished off in the house. It was decided that the original wood base board that was put in when the extension was built many years ago had to go and be replaced by tile.

Personally I didn't think that it would make that much of a difference but I was wrong. The improvement is huge. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the original base board but I did get a couple of the new tile.



The hardest part of getting any work done here in Sarnia is finding a contractor to do the work. I have heard stories that people having wait for months just to get an estimate never mind the actual work.

We were lucky. We knew someone that was a very handy with their hands and did the work for us. The interesting part of this for me was that he had just come back from spending time in Columbia teaching English as a second language. It was fun to trade stories about Central and South American and see the differences and the similarities between the two regions.

Kiva Update

This week I have received the first repayment installment on one of the loans that I have made to businesses in Nicaragua through Kiva.org.

Here s the email notification that I received:

Dear Iain,

The business you have loaned to, Miscelánea Yahoska (Yahoska's Convenience Store), has made a repayment of $67.00. The total amount repaid up to now is $67.00. The payment was collected and deposited by Prisma Microfinance. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders who helped to fund this business, depending upon the percentage each lender contributed. Note that you cannot actually withdraw or reloan these funds until after the loan term is complete.

Comment:

scheduled_repayment

Here is a link to my lender page on Kiva which show which businesses I have loaned money to and the status of the repayments.

If you are interested in helping someone in a less fortunate situation than you, please sign up and make a loan. You can loan as little as $25 and you will get that money back, so what are you waiting for?

Older Photos

I am slowly working my way thru adding older photos to my online photo album. Today I have been able to add photos from my trip to Montreal in Sept - Oct 2006 and my trip to British Columbia in Oct 2002.

I have yet to get all of the descriptions done so bear with me ;)

Photos

When my previous site was hacked I not only lost my blog but also my photo albums as well.

I have put most of my photos back online here. While the photos are there I have to go through and add comments to them so that people can understand what the photo is showing. As you can imagine this will take some time so please bear with me ;)

English Lessons

I received word today that one of the boys that I know from Granada will be able to start taking English lessons thanks to a local Granada volunteer. With plenty of emails back and forth we have finally worked out the details. Geraldo will receive English lessons 3-4 hours per week in 1 hour blocks for the (low) cost of $3 USD per hour.

As you can tell from the photo, Geraldo sells necklaces and bracelets to tourists. He lives in a one room house with his mother, sister and brother in one of the poor barrios outside of Granada and has a 30 - 35 minute walk each day to get into town. He sells 6 days a week and is the sole provider for his family. The plan is with the English lessons he will be able to increase his sales to tourists and in the long term be able to get a job in the tourist trade there when he gets older.

The other benefit is that as a volunteer his teacher will have some (much needed) additional funds coming in.

Just another example of how a small amount money in Nicaragua can make large differences in people's lives.

Loans that change lives

During my trips to Nicaragua I was amazed at how much can be done with so little money by North American terms. I had heard about microfinance and how it is used to help small business in developing countries.

After my return I ran across this web site thats sole purpose is to help the regular guy get involved in the microfinance business and make a difference in the world.

From their website:

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

The site allows the user to pick and choose what businesses they wish to support. I have decided that I will loan money to businesses in Nicaragua. Check out my lender page and get involved. You can make a world of difference for as little as $25 (and you get that money back) so what are you waiting for?

Blog 2.0

As some of you will know this is my second blog. The first one got destroyed in a hacker attack and was irretrievable. Unfortunately that meant that I lost all of my previous entries so I have decided to let all of the previous info go and just focus on the present and future.

I will post items of interest about my life and travels and of course, comments on stuff that gets peaks my interest.

As always, feel free to post comments on what I post ;)

First Post

This is my first post to this blog - check back shortly as I will updating on a regular basis.