rants | Michael R. Barrick

2011-03-02, 1:46 pm

News in the 21st Century

(timings are approximate)
Hour 0: news is created/disseminated from the source

Hours 0-30: people with a direct interest micro-blog (Tweeting, fb-status, etc.), text, and blog about it.

Hours 12-48: people with a secondary interest micro-blog, text, and…

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2010-11-14, 10:14 pm

Why I Hate The Internet

I swear the Internet is robbing me of intelligence. I try to avoid running in the special olympics, but just the very act of reading though and looking at the volume of mediocre crap to find the occasional gem is rotting my mind. It's the mental…

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2010-07-09, 12:43 pm

Housing Rental Ad Glossary for Vancouver Home Hunters

"New York style" = small, overpriced, and the kitchen is in the living room.
"open concept" = the kitchen is in the living room
"garden level" = basement
"no smoking" = landlord is too cheap to paint
"no pets" = landlord is too cheap to change…

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2010-05-08, 10:24 am

In Response to, "If you don't like noise, don't live downtown."

I moved downtown to close to transit and services so I don't have to own a car just to get groceries, visit a friend, go to a gallery, see a movie, so I can go out to a bar or a club to make noise and conveniently get home, etc.. I have no tolerance…

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2010-05-04, 8:24 pm

Living Wage?

There was a lot of talk today on the CBC and other media about the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives issuing a new "living wage" value for Metro Vancouver.

A "living wage" in this context is defined as a minimal amount for two adults working…

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2010-04-01, 5:17 pm

Tego Sucking One Last Time

So, over two months since I ordered my free Tego skin, it finally arrived. It did, in fact, ship rather quickly since I only got the shipping notice three days ago, but that's pretty normal for Canada Post letter-mail from one major city (Winnipeg)…

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2010-03-08, 10:47 pm

Holy Crappy Service, Tego!

Remember back in January when I left my phone in a taxi and it went where socks go in the dryer? Two days before that I had ordered a custom skin from an outfit called "Tego. I wouldn't waste money on such a thing, but I happened to "win" this as a…

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2010-02-03, 10:50 pm

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 4: I Have a Phone Again

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 3: See, Blair, Anything is Possible

My replacement phone arrived today. This is good. But first let me back up a bit...

Some of you suggested I send my blog posts in to Rogers, and I was planning to…

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2010-02-01, 7:55 am

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 3: See, Blair, Anything is Possible

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 2: Rogers was Predictably Useless:

Since Rogers' head office is in Toronto and in a time-zone three hours ahead I got up an hour and a half earlier than usual today to call in at 9:00 a.m. their time…

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2010-01-31, 3:10 pm

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 2: Rogers was Predictably Useless

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs:

And, as expected, my attempt to get someone to resolve my problem at a Rogers Wireless outlet was useless.

I went to the nearest Rogers outlet identified by their website as dealing with wireless and…

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