Although it is January, it feels more like September in Southern Ontario.

There is not one speck of snow on the ground. Temperature is occasionally in the double digits (e.g. 10C yesterday, and 8C today), and it is raining instead of snowing. The local newspapers have pictures of kids playing soccer in the park, instead of skating on an outdoor rink, or skiing down a run. Other pictures show a man with a lawn mower cutting the grass!

A quick look at Google Zeitgeist 2006 tells volumes about how people use the internet, and what is important to the general populace.First off, the two most search for words are "myspace" and "bebo". Both are social networking sites. The curious part is that people search for them rather than just tack on .com and type that in the URL.This is not a case of simply typing "myspace" or "bebo" by itself in the browser's URL, because most people still use Microsoft Internet Explorer, and it does not default to a Google search.

What does a 2nd century B.C. Carthaginian general and a 13th century Spanish Muslim commander have in common? Separated by 1,500 years, there are more in common than would meet the eye.

Bogeymen and Monsters

In every culture, there are imaginary monsters or bogeymen that parents use to scare children. For example, in rural Egypt children are told not to play near water canals, otherwise El Nadaha (النداهة "The caller, The Siren") would lure them and drown them.

Although many of them are the stuff of legends, some of them have real historic roots.

Two examples from history, and their similarities are discussed below.

While beavers are common in Southern Ontario conservation areas, two recent incidents caused controversy because they are right in urban areas. Beavers on the University of Waterloo campus has gnawed several trees, posing a danger to those who use the trails. The University then paid a trapper to drown the beavers. Four of them were killed that way. There was a public outcry, from the students, as well as Waterloo residents. This caused the university to revise its policy and start a task force headed by the dean of Environmental Studies. Even that task force is being debated.

On December 20, British Columbia got a severe windstorm, leaving 25,000 homes without power.While strong wind storms from the Pacific ocean are common this time of the year, their number and magnitude this year is unusual.

Because of an El Nino year, British Columbia is getting adverse weather, while Southern Ontario has a mild winter so far. This is despite some early snow squalls on Southern Ontario.This mild weather is more widespread though. The CBC reports that no major storm fronts are on the way, and hence Christmas is expected to be "green" (as opposed to "white") in many parts of the country. This even affects cities that always got a white Christmas throughout their recorded history, like Thunder Bay Ontario, and Quebec City.

Here is another fake lottery, this time claiming to be from Microsoft.

Finally, after buying and returning two HP laptops, including the HP DV6120, I settled on one that works with Linux. It is the Toshiba Satellite A100 TA6. The product ID is PSAA8C-TA602C.

The hardware configuration is as follows:

• Intel Centrino Duo T2250 Processor 1.73GHz Processor Speed
• 15.4" Wide XGA TFT with Trubrite Display
• 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• Intel 950 GMA graphics adapter (128 MB shared memory)
• Intel 3945ABG wireless LAN adapter
• Realtek 861 audio on Intel High Definition Audio (HDA)
• DVD Super-Multi Drive +/- Double Layer
• 10/100 Integrated Ethernet LAN on the back, left side
• 4 USB ports (two on the right side, and two on the back right)
• Modem RJ11 port (right hand side)
• External Microphone Port, Headphone Port
• S-Video Out (left side)
• Monitor connection (left side)
• Firewire (left side)
• 2 PCMCIA slots (one Cardbus Type II, and one Expresscard)
• xD/SD/MM/Memory stick card reader (does not work in Linux)
• 2.8 kg

The laptop cost $1100 at Staples, with $170 for 3 year extended warranty. They matched the price from Best Buy 10 days after I bought it, and that made it $1040.

Popular Mechanics has an extensive article titled The Digital Ice Age. It discussed how present information can be lost for future generations.Also discussed on Slashdot. 

A while back, I wrote about ChangeEverything.ca, which aims to rally together people who want to change themselves, their community and the world.

The site uses Drupal 4.7, and some custom modules that I wrote for the good folks at SocialSignal. Two modules, favorite nodes, and SpreadFireFox affiliates, got released to the community.