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Toronto-Age |OT2|

E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Boogie said:
Oh, EvilMario, is this your first introduction to the Arrogant Worms? Feast your ears, my friend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y-9ViORazI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vxDDcTc64c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGGNsE3_8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQkql4dHniE
Click to expand...

Very cool, thanks for sharing. I've heard a few of these before (like the Canada is BIG song), but never the Beaver song. They're all pretty awesome!

Zombie James said:
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1078106--ford-outsources-business-cards-to-his-family-s-firm
Matlow's card looks better, too.
Click to expand...

Sort of related, but on Thursday McCown (Prime Time Sports, radio show) said the one time he met the Mayor, he extended his hand for a handshake, but Ford just handed him a business card. Hurr
 
K

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
Srsly while I think that's pretty shameless on Ford's part for fuck's sake that seems a bit petty on the Stars part.

I'm more concerned with serious financial issues not paying 3 cents more for a fucking card.

What's next? Ford uses deluxe toilet paper from a friend's company that costs 25 cents more than the city toilet paper company.

Nowhere near as bad as that fucktard Giambrone with his fucking French lessons and worldwide trips.
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
Kuro Madoushi said:
Srsly while I think that's pretty shameless on Ford's part for fuck's sake that seems a bit petty on the Stars part.

I'm more concerned with serious financial issues not paying 3 cents more for a fucking card.

What's next? Ford uses deluxe toilet paper from a friend's company that costs 25 cents more than the city toilet paper company.

Nowhere near as bad as that fucktard Giambrone with his fucking French lessons and worldwide trips.
Click to expand...
Sigh. Giambrone's trips were predominantly for transit conferences. Because as the TTC chair it was kinda his job to understand what was going on in the rest of the world wrt Transit.

Miller's and the clerk's offices approving sending a dozen people to one conference? That's the issue.

As for sourcing purchases, on the face of things it's a violation of Toronto's procurement and conflict of interest rules to do what Ford did. Is he the first? Certainly not. But that's no excuse. You don't get to sole-source anything in government anymore.

And that notwithstanding, for someone who bitches and moans about gravy, a two-cent-per-card difference adds up when you're printing and handing out cards like there's no tomorrow. This may be a two-cent story, but it's noxious behaviour and he deserves to be called out.
 
K

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
BladeWorker said:
Sigh. Giambrone's trips were predominantly for transit conferences. Because as the TTC chair it was kinda his job to understand what was going on in the rest of the world wrt Transit.

Miller's and the clerk's offices approving sending a dozen people to one conference? That's the issue.

As for sourcing purchases, on the face of things it's a violation of Toronto's procurement and conflict of interest rules to do what Ford did. Is he the first? Certainly not. But that's no excuse. You don't get to sole-source anything in government anymore.

And that notwithstanding, for someone who bitches and moans about gravy, a two-cent-per-card difference adds up when you're printing and handing out cards like there's no tomorrow. This may be a two-cent story, but it's noxious behaviour and he deserves to be called out.
Click to expand...
I'll bite.

I hope I was explicit enough in that Ford was wrong to do this.

Giambrone and worldwide transit conferences? Please. He's the easiest one to nail.

I sure don't notice any changes implemented from his knowledge gained from trips.

Hell, I'll even use a Star ref.

http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/article/954050--departing-councillors-took-trips

Don't get me wrong. We shouldn't be looking the other way at this behaviour, but people got away with a lot fuckin worse.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
International icon.

I wonder how much of a mess the Pan Am games will be (and not all.. maybe not much, will be Ford's fault)

dVPUo.jpg


Mayor Rob Ford touched down in Guadalajara Friday afternoon. This is his first international I'm-here-representing-Toronto gig since taking office last December. So far Ford has taken a tour of the athlete's village, watched a few sporting events and attended two provincial receptions — one for athlete's and their families (although only a handful of athletes showed up, seems like most have gone home judging by the empty village) and the other for dignitaries.

Last night he met Governor General David Johnston, although the two didn't get any one-on-one time. Ford did chat with Charles Sousa, Ontario's minister responsible for the Pan/Parapan American Games and Bal Gosal, the federal minister of sport. He spent the night chugging back H20 and I didn't see him try any of the carmel, bacon, whip cream cake things (of which I had 4.)

Ford has been a popular guy here. People seemed genuinely very appreciative and supportive that he made the trip, especially since his RSVP came at the absolute last minute. Those who have spoken to him about today's closing ceremony, where he will receive the Pan Am flag from Guadalajara's mayor, say he is a bit nervous. More than 50,000 people will be in the stadium and millions will be watching on television.

Ford won't be speaking. That's the GG's job.
Click to expand...
 
R

Rinoa

Member
Was anyone at the A&C games halloween thing? I only came for a bit before a harp lesson as (RE Darkside Chronicles) Manuela Hidalgo.
 
A

added_time

Member
Well Bell finally made good on their promise 2 months ago and raised my internet price... but instead of raising it 5 dollars like they said... they raised it 40 dollars!! Good one!
I will be cancelling the internet and home phone line later today and I will ask the employee on the phone to tell the higher ups that I say "fuck your mother"

So on to Teksavvy.


TekSavvy
Lite Cable* Up to 3 Mbps Up to 256 K 300 $27.95/month

TekSavvy
Express Cable* Up to 12 Mbps Up to 512 K 300 $36.95/month

TekSavvy
Extreme Cable ** Up to 24 Mbps Up to 1 Mbps 300 $42.95/month


These are my options I'm considering but I'm having trouble figuring out what those download speeds actually mean.
So if I'm downloading a file and it says it should be 12Mbps, does that mean I can download a 12meg file in one second? Or is 12Mbps some other form of measurement?

Thanks for answering my dumb question.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
It'll be 'around' 12mbps, but it could vary. You'll probably notice a 'speed boost' when you first start a download (ours go spike to 40mbps), but will settle down into the 20s. TekSavvy Cable is at the mercy of Roger's throttling and any issues they have at their POI, etc. Buy a decent modem too. It can go a long ways to not bottlenecking your speeds.

We've been happy with ours, with very little service down time, and good speeds. TekSavvy allows you to do almost everything online too, changing service, invoices, tech support.
 
C

cbox

Member
Man I really want cable internet from tek, dsl isn't cutting it any more :/

I just hope the speeds in my area don't suck.
 
S

Stet

Banned
ConvenientBox said:
Man I really want cable internet from tek, dsl isn't cutting it any more :/

I just hope the speeds in my area don't suck.
Click to expand...
Seriously. I just don't want to have to pay for a new modem/set up, etc.
 
A

added_time

Member
EvilMario said:
It'll be 'around' 12mbps, but it could vary. You'll probably notice a 'speed boost' when you first start a download (ours go spike to 40mbps), but will settle down into the 20s. TekSavvy Cable is at the mercy of Roger's throttling and any issues they have at their POI, etc. Buy a decent modem too. It can go a long ways to not bottlenecking your speeds.

We've been happy with ours, with very little service down time, and good speeds. TekSavvy allows you to do almost everything online too, changing service, invoices, tech support.
Click to expand...

hmm I tried to order online and it says "We are no longer accepting customers in your area due to high demand"

Fuck. Just great.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
ConvenientBox said:
Man I really want cable internet from tek, dsl isn't cutting it any more :/

I just hope the speeds in my area don't suck.
Click to expand...

Our DSL with Teksavvy just got more and more terrible (thanks, Bell!). We had around 4.5-5.0mbps down a few years ago, but eventually by the time we switched to cable this year, we were lucky to be above 2.0mbps most times.

Cable has been good, even though we seemed to suffer with the Scarlett IOS problem for a while. It seems to have cleared up though, and we're happy with speed around ten times faster than we had on DSL.

Don't skimp on the modem either; buy the best one they have. The extra $20 is worth it.

added_time said:
hmm I tried to order online and it says "We are no longer accepting customers in your area due to high demand"

Fuck. Just great.
Click to expand...

Weird, I've never heard of anyone with an issue like that. I'd write an e-mail, or contact their customer service. You can probably get in.
 
S

Stet

Banned
added_time said:
hmm I tried to order online and it says "We are no longer accepting customers in your area due to high demand"

Fuck. Just great.
Click to expand...
Call them. When I signed up for DSL, their online ordering thing said it was unavailable in my area and on the phone they told me that was just plain wrong.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
They have a stop-sell going on in a bunch of areas fornteksavvy cable to avoid further congestion. You can call and ask when they plan to open it back up, maybe get an idea.

Anyway I'm getting my docsis 3 modem in the mail soon, gonna be enjoying my 24/1 speeds with uber amounts of bandwidth and low low price. Feels good :p
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
-Pyromaniac- said:
They have a stop-sell going on in a bunch of areas fornteksavvy cable to avoid further congestion. You can call and ask when they plan to open it back up, maybe get an idea.

Anyway I'm getting my docsis 3 modem in the mail soon, gonna be enjoying my 24/1 speeds with uber amounts of bandwidth and low low price. Feels good :p
Click to expand...

Unless Rogers is going to stop taking on customers too (lulz?), so this even going to matter? They'll just eat up customers if TekSavvy is turning people away. So there will be plenty of 'congestion' anyways.
 
A

added_time

Member
Stet said:
Call them. When I signed up for DSL, their online ordering thing said it was unavailable in my area and on the phone they told me that was just plain wrong.
Click to expand...

I just called. They said no new accounts for my area but they will email me to let me know when they start accepting new customers again. Rats.

Does anyone else offer cable internet in Toronto besides Rogers and them?
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
added_time said:
I just called. They said no new accounts for my area but they will email me to let me know when they start accepting new customers again. Rats.

Does anyone else offer cable internet in Toronto besides Rogers and them?
Click to expand...

There are other providers, but I don't have experience with any of them, so I can't say which I recommend, but do a search here and look up information about them.

http://www.canadianisp.ca/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi?f=Search&p=ON
 
C

cbox

Member
Stet said:
Seriously. I just don't want to have to pay for a new modem/set up, etc.
Click to expand...

Same here, though some friends used to have cable internet from rogers a few years back and hated it... not sure if my area has improved.
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
EvilMario said:
It'll be 'around' 12mbps, but it could vary. You'll probably notice a 'speed boost' when you first start a download (ours go spike to 40mbps), but will settle down into the 20s. TekSavvy Cable is at the mercy of Roger's throttling and any issues they have at their POI, etc. Buy a decent modem too. It can go a long ways to not bottlenecking your speeds.

We've been happy with ours, with very little service down time, and good speeds. TekSavvy allows you to do almost everything online too, changing service, invoices, tech support.
Click to expand...

What the fuck, when did I go up to 24Mbits/s? Awesome.
 
Oppo

Oppo

Member
Kuro Madoushi said:
Giambrone and worldwide transit conferences? Please. He's the easiest one to nail.

I sure don't notice any changes implemented from his knowledge gained from trips.
Click to expand...
Credit where it's due: he is responsible for the time estimate and screens on the subway platforms, as well as the open data GPS-tracked streetcars and buses. That 2nd one will be a real lifesaver this winter (via iPhone app).
 
C

cbox

Member
The bus GPS is probably the biggest +1 I can give to the TTC. It's dead on too.

Shame I don't take the bus anymore- maybe in the winter.
 
R

Rinoa

Member
ConvenientBox said:
The bus GPS is probably the biggest +1 I can give to the TTC. It's dead on too.

Shame I don't take the bus anymore- maybe in the winter.
Click to expand...

It's not useful when there are random detours (it arrives but then is out of service or is changing route), construction or shift changes. The time estimate is best if there's normal traffic expected.
 
A

Azih

Member
Sole sourcing government contracts to your own company is worse than junkets to my mind. I mean Ford is making money off of taxpayers.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Rinoa said:
It's not useful when there are random detours (it arrives but then is out of service or is changing route), construction or shift changes. The time estimate is best if there's normal traffic expected.
Click to expand...

But on my route, which might have one, or two construction delays per year, it's a Godsend. I check on the map and see the bus on its route. I don't time it by the time they list, I time it by where the bus is.

Works wonders. Actually makes the bus system and streetcar system very tolerable. Now when I know I have a 20 minute wait for the 501, I can go get a coffee!
 
C

cbox

Member
EvilMario said:
But on my route, which might have one, or two construction delays per year, it's a Godsend. I check look on the map and see the bus on its route. I don't time it by the time they list, I time it by where the bus is.

Works wonders. Actually makes the bus system and streetcar system very tolerable. Now when I know I have a 20 minute wait for the 501, I can go get a coffee!
Click to expand...

This is exactly how i'd use it. My stops are all in the middle of nowhere, so in the winter I can go run into a close by coffee shop and warm up instead of freeze my ass off like before. Now with the GPS I know I have 20 minutes to hang out instead of gambling my time.
 
K

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
PortTwo said:
Credit where it's due: he is responsible for the time estimate and screens on the subway platforms, as well as the open data GPS-tracked streetcars and buses. That 2nd one will be a real lifesaver this winter (via iPhone app).
Click to expand...
My experience with the time estimates is they're wrong or wonky...went from 2 min to 6 min to 2 min once.

I'll have to check this GPS tracked streetcars/buses thing though.

I tried their 'text #### to ### to find out the time of the next streetcar' and the bastards never txted me back.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Use NextBus. And don't go by the timed estimates unless you don't know the route very well. I'm able to time the bus almost to the minute now, so I know when I have to be out the front door.

http://www.nextbus.com/googleMap/googleMap.jsp?a=ttc&r=77&d=77_1_77&s=9447


PortTwo said:
Credit where it's due: he is responsible for the time estimate and screens on the subway platforms, as well as the open data GPS-tracked streetcars and buses. That 2nd one will be a real lifesaver this winter (via iPhone app).
Click to expand...

Indeed. Giambrone had a few too many public screw ups, personally and at the TTC, but the open GPS tracking and screens on platforms is more progress than we'll see in the system in the next three (and probably much longer) years.
 
C

cbox

Member
Roto13 said:
What I want to know is how this has managed to stay out of Community for so long.

Did I just jinx it?
Click to expand...

We're the center of the universe mang, we have special rights :D


joking of course... I really hope you didn't jinx it :p
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Roto13 said:
What I want to know is how this has managed to stay out of Community for so long.

Did I just jinx it?
Click to expand...

Y U GOTTA JINX IT, BRO

I don't care how much they promote it. Community is a graveyard!
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
By the way, I started a #toronto-age room on Dorksnet's IRC server if anyone is interested in jumping on to chat.

If there's an alternative server that's preferred, please make suggestions, but I am on Dorksnet quite a bit myself.

Click this link to join via web, or connect via irc.gamecubecafe.com and #toronto-age.

edit:

[18:55] *** ConvenientBox has joined #toronto-age
[18:56] *** ConvenientBox has quit IRC (Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)

;_;
 
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