Mike Pereira's Blog - Syndicated Feed

| home | infobox | photos | news | cv | docs | search | [française]

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
2 Jul 2008 at 3:24pm
It was the official "moving day" in Quebec yesterday, July 1st .

Here is some information about the event:

Moving Day (French: Journée du déménagement) is a tradition in the province of Quebec. It began as a humanitarian measure of the French colonial government of New France, who forbade seigneurs, the semi-feudal landlords of the seigneuries, from evicting their tenant farmers before the winter snows had melted. In law, this date was set as May 1. Later, this evolved into a requirement that urban leases begin on May 1 and end on April 30. There are still laws protecting renters in Quebec from eviction during the winter.In 1973, during the Quiet Revolution, the government decided that it would be better to move Moving Day to the summer, so that students would not have to move during the school year. The law changed Moving Day to July 1 as of 1974.

There is no longer a set fixed term for leases, but standardized government rental contracts are based around the July 1st moving day. The Quebec Government, through the Ministry of Housing (Régie du logement), regulates all rental contracts. Many people may also have 'off the books' rental agreements and their terms may be more flexible in terms of when a lease begins and ends. However, if there is ever a dispute between a landlord and tenant and there is an 'off the books' leasing agreement, the "Régie" will almost always rule in favour of the tenant and they may fine the landlord. A tenant who signs a private lease document that is not a standard government form and is not filed with the Régie, is not bound by the terms of an off the books lease and can choose to end the lease if they want to get out of it, because the contract is not considered valid by the government.

People in Quebec are free to enter into a rental contract at any time in the year, however, a one year lease will usually expire on July 1 (because it can't expire during the winter). A house may be sold at any time in the year. The majority of all rental contracts in Quebec start or end on July 1.

This year about 200,000 households moved on July 1, corresponding to 6% of the population of Quebec.

"Moving Day" is a boon for commercial moving companies, and people often must reserve their services at least three months in advance. During this period, moving companies work around the clock, with moving charges often being three times the normal rate.

In Montreal, where about 60% of people rent their accommodation, Moving Day is particularly busy. The difficulty of moving is further complicated because, by convention, most Montreal landlords do not provide their tenants with a refrigerator or stove, meaning that tenants are forced to bring theirs with them. Also, exterior staircases leading up to second, third, or even fourth-storey apartments are common, in part because historically this reduced the size of buildings and therefore decreased the owner's property taxes. These staircases are often narrow, curved, and metal ? not ideal for non-professionals carrying major appliances.

Cities also schedule extra garbage and recycling pickups for this period to deal with unwanted furniture and empty boxes left beside the road. Despite the extra pickups, heaps of garbage can be seen everywhere in Montreal during the weeks leading to July 1 and the weeks after it. It's a haven for people who like to drive around and collect people's discarded stuff. In a city like Montreal, the effect of thousands of people all moving on the same day, makes the city look like it is undertaking a refugee evacuation.

I appreciate the irony that moving day happens to fall on Canada Day, and Quebec nationalists want the province to ?move? out of Canada.

It's absolutely ridiculous that everyone moves on the same day, but part of the culture here in Quebec.

(c) Mike Pereira, 2007

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
18 Nov 2007 at 5:14am
I've been so busy lately that I almost forgot to post the fact that I have had a website up for 10 years. My current site and domain name 'mike-pereira.com' was set up in the summer of 2002. My first web page was posted (and I looked this up in my archives) on September 21, 1997 when I was a student at the University of Western Ontario.

I thought about making a tribute page. I could have spent some time doing fancy graphics, but I think the best way for me to mark 10 years of website history is to put up this simple page, a few links, and write about my experience over the years.

The world wide web started to be popular, at least on university campuses all over Canada, around 1994. At that time I was beginning my first year. I logged onto the web from the Social Science Computer Lab. The university's own web page had recently been launched. Previous to that various departments and the library system had begun to migrate from their Telent pages. I was fascinated with the new medium. I could see right away that it had the potential to make computer communication accessible to the masses. At the time the mainstream media were starting to pick up on the 'Internet.'

The new hyper text mark-up language (HTML) was fascinating. It was a simple command based language, similar to a macro program. It would instruct a program called a 'browser' to display text and images called from basically a text file with a '.htm' extension. You could decorate the page with formatting commands and you could insert pictures by linking to gif or jpeg image files. The cool thing about a website is the ability to link to other pages on the Internet. I had some background in computer programming from high school and played extensively with BBS's, Telnet, and such. It was not long before I began to examine HTML and think about putting up my own website.

In the early days finding an ISP was not easy and not cheap. My first website was the one I designed for the Social Science Student's Council in 1995. It took until 1997 for UWO to finally offer free web space to all students. Previous to that server, space was only available to academic departments, faculty, students organizations, a few grad students, and some undergrads in select departments. By 1996 free web hosting companies such as Geocities opened up, but I did not like the format. Finally, in the summer of 1997 the university provided the entire student population with the opportunity to post their own web sites. There was a bureaucratic application process and a huge 'acceptable use' document we had to sign. The biggest hold-up in allowing students to post personal websites was not technological but rather the many legal questions that could arise from student web pages. I was one of the first students to get signed up for a personal page in the summer of 1997.

I keep everything backed up somewhere. Hey, I have just about every document I've ever written on a computer backed up some place, going back to grade 9. It was no surprise that I kept a copy of my first personal webpage. It's very primitive. I simply modified the template page that UWO I.T.S. set up. Over the next few months I built a much slicker page, added graphics, frames, animations, and whatnot.

I chronicle the development of my website in a "History" document linked from the home page of my website. Read through it for more details.

After graduating from UWO in 1998, I moved my website to space offered by my internet service provider at the time. I then transferred the site to web space provided by George Washington University when I was a graduate student. It was then that I began thinking about a more permanent home for my website and I registered a domain name, got set up with a good host and built up the site since. Actually, there were big periods of neglect because I was busy with school and work, but hey, I'm not making money on my website.

Mostly, my personal site has been a place to test out new technology and to park stuff, like documents and files for my friends via FTP portals and such. It is also a really good way to host a CV and post documents I have written. There is also a photo gallery. I built mine myself before there were readily accessible photo hosting programs and before I had a digital camera, so it was time consuming to maintain. Imagine scanning photos, resizing them and cropping them to the web in Photoshop, making thumbnails, then building a webpage from a template to post the images? Now I use various programs to manipulate my photos and build the thumbnail galleries. I set up this blog on Blogger but with RSS I am able syndicate the content back to my personal website, so now the site gets updated regularly.

Well, that's the ten year history of my website.

(c) Mike Pereira, 2007

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
22 Sep 2007 at 11:42am
On September 21, 2007 it was the first full day where the Canadian Dollar was valued at or above the US dollar for the first time in over 30 years. It's a big news story both economically and politically. There are two sides to the issue. Those who export Canadian goods to the US don't like it because they can?t benefit from the artifical low value of their exports when converted into USD. The tourism sector in Canada, even the film industry may take a hit. Although for everyone else who buys things from the US, it is awesome. Another effect is that most people become shockingly aware how much we pay for stuff in Canada when the same item costs much less in the US than it does in Canada. There may be a number of reasons for this, taxes being among them. One thing many people like about dollar parity is not economic but rather a sense of patriotism and national pride. I feel happy that our dollar is worth something. No more jokes about the "Canadian Peso" and "Monopoly Money," Our dollar is worth something in the international community. Our country has been ranked in the top 10 of many international lists for best standard of living. That's great and all, but many people, myself included, have a smug grin because now our money is up there as well. I don?t know how long the trend will last. I also know that compared to the Euro and other currency both CDN and USD are not exactly that well placed. The sluggish US economy that is causing the drop in the greenback may eventually drag other economies down if Americans spend less money.

Politically there was a time when a Canadian Prime Minister would have taken grief in the media for a lower dollar and taken praise for a higher one. Since the dollar dropped to a low of $0.60 USD not longer than six years ago, the PM of the day shirked responsibility. Today's PM is not taking credit for the strong dollar either. It's a political non-issue because the rise and fall is attributed to economic factors. Regardless of who takes the credit or blame, there may be a political impact in society becasue if we have a perception of wealth, there will be a push for government to spend more. Although, when we see how much tax we pay compared to goods in the US, there will also be a push to cut taxes. All very interesting dynamics, but I don't feel like going into a discussion about that at this point.

As for me, I may be inclined to buy a few things online from the US, provided the shipping costs are worth it, and take advantage of our new $1CDN=$1USD dollar.

(c) Mike Pereira, 2007

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
22 Aug 2007 at 11:44pm
The Quebec government is floating a trial balloon with the proposal of taxing the plastic bags we now get for free at stores and supermarkets. They are thinking about a $0.20 cent tax on each bag. From what I hear in the media a similar scheme was tried in Ireland and they say it cut plastic bag use by over 50%.

As with any new tax I am a bit suspicious of the motive. Before I rip into the proposed new tax, it is worth mentioning that the idea has some positive points. I happen to be conscious of environmental issues. I recycle, bike to work, use public transit, and I bring in my own cloth bags when I go shopping for groceries. Plastic bags are bad for the environment, no doubt. The plastic can accumulate in a landfill without breaking down for centuries. After a week of shopping, if I don't use my own cloth bags, I can easily pile up 10 or more plastic bags. They even double bag them if I have heavy items. When I do get plastic bags I use them as a garbage bags for my non recyclables or for storing things. I try to give them a second or third use before they are used for trash. I can accumulate so many bags with one visit to a grocery store that even with the use of my own canvas bags, my supply of plastic will not run out any time soon. I get two plastic bags in my mailbox every week containing store flyers. A measure to make people more responsible for what they throw away could be a good thing.

Cynically though, governments today are always looking at new ways to tax. They can?t help it. Voters want more social programs but don't want to pay more taxes. Raising the sales tax or income tax would be very unpopular. Taxing a particular consumption, a 'sin tax,' works. Tax alcohol, tobacco, restaurant food, gas, and it is easier to get away with. Politicians see the increasing awareness about the need to protect the environment, and they use that public sentiment to justify all sorts of new taxes. That?s why we pay so much for gasoline. It is more palatable to voters. As an added bonus, the Quebec government can avoid following through with more onerous environmental commitments, while still saying they did something for the environment by reducing plastic bag consumption. In the grand scheme of environmental problems, plastic bags are a small part of pollution. So this will end up being another tax.

Looking at both sides, and considering what is reported to have happened in other places where they tried this, I think the idea is worth a try. It will probably reduce bag consumption. If you have to pay for it you will be prompted to modify your behaviour the next time you get your groceries. But I still think it is a sneaky way to make me pay more tax.

Anyway, that's my 20 cents worth. Would you like a bag with that?

(c) Mike Pereira, 2007

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
9 Aug 2007 at 5:55pm
I am paranoid about redundancy and backing stuff up. I go to great lengths in my preoccupation with data preservation. For some of my friends it is a running joke, but they stop laughing whenever their computers crash and they loose data. I have three separate internal hard drives and two external drives plus two USB data keys. I make duplicate copies (mirrors) of important data on a different drive in between external backups. I copy a snapshot of my data to DVD bi-monthly or more frequently if I have more new content such as photos.

My PC itself is also hooked up to a UPS, with a secure auto shutdown program to ensure the machine is both clean from electricity surges and that in case of a power outage there is a smooth shutdown. Then there is redundancy. The main backup CDs/DVDs are at my place, I also make duplicates and leave them at my parents place in Ontario, at my relatives house here in Montreal, at my grandparents place, and with buddies in Toronto and the United States. We sometimes swap duplicate backups [inter-regional redundancy]. If there was something we thought private on the backups, we use PGP to encrypt the disk, but generally the disks are open.

Then I store important information on the secure FTP storage space my ISP provides for my website. The server is actually housed in California, with mirrors on the US East Coast and Mid-West. My ISP allows me several gigs of storage. The storage space for my website is much smaller than the space I have available. This type of data storage is handy if I am on the go and don?t have access to a CD or memory key with my data on it.

Why am I such a nut for backing up my data?

Recent natural disasters and other catastrophic events in the news have sparked many people into protecting their valuable data. My preoccupation with backing up goes father back than this. I was influenced by a high school computer science teacher who drove home the notion of backing up. During tests and exams (done in the computer lab), he would without warning throw the power switch and restart every computer. If you did not save your work you were screwed. We were writing and debugging code in a fixed amount of time, so if someone had not saved before he cut the power they lost their work. He warned us in class that he pulls this crap, people who have taken his classes in the past warned us, and so it was no surprise. But there are always those one or two dweebs in the class that forgot. Those that saved their work in time would stare disappointingly at the ashen-faced students who have just lost all their work.

For me, during the mid-term I lost about 10 minutes of work between saves, but by the final I was saving at about every line of code. I also made a backup copy just in case the cut in power messed up the file. During that final exam I saved just before he threw the switch and did not lose anything. I remember that 5 students in the class lost an hour?s worth of work, which messed up their final marks. Since then and after witnessing numerous pitiful incidents where my friends lost valuable data to viruses and crashes, I have been preoccupied with backing up.

This article exists in MS Word (on my hard drive and on DVD backups) as an HTML article, and as a syndicated blog posting. It is a working example of tripple redundancy. Back-up early and back-up often!

(c) Mike Pereira, 2007