10 Years on the Web 1997-2007

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.

Canadian Dollar = US Dollar

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.

Proposed Plastic Bag Tax

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?

The Importance of Backing Up Your Data

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!

Reality TV Rant - Canadian Idol

by noreply@blogger.com (Mike Pereira)
7 Aug 2007 at 11:45pm
I've started my blog back up again after months of stagnation. Right now I am playing with formats and thinking about what I should write about in the blog. After a year of experience with it I noticed that if I write political stuff I tend to want to write it like an op-ed article. I have to think too hard about what I am going to say and the blog gets to be too much work. The result is that I don't end up posting much stuff.

Then there is the reaction from my readers, some of you like reading about my various opinions, while the rest of you, and you know who you are, don't like when I talk about politics because you find the topic uninteresting. Anyway, for the next few entries I am going to try a combination of stuff, a mix of "rants of the day" and whatever else I can think of imparting.

What happened on Idol tonight?

So here is a big rant. I find guilty pleasure in watching Reality TV. From time to time I watch Canadian Idol, and the episode tonight (7 AUG 2007) is worth blogging about. The theme was songs from Queen. Great music, awesome theme. All was going well, they put in a shameless plug for some Queen music based musical in Toronto, then the results... The three best singers on the show were put on the bottom three!!! At first I thought it was a stunt to boost tension, they would take the top three and Ben Mulroney would announce all three of them were safe - no, they were on the chopping block. Then they voted out the best performer of the group from the night before! WTF? Did Ben read his queue card alright? Was the voting tabulation messed up? It was for real... Even Ben was upset... Idol voted off Greg Neufeld, also in the bottom three were Brian Melo and Carly-Rae Jepsen - the three best singers in the competition.

I think the issue could be regional based voting on the show. I notice that on this show local yokels from little hick towns in Newfoundland or from rural Saskatchewan tend to stay around longer on the show than their talent deserves. When a contestant is the only one from a smaller province, that whole region seems to rally around him or her and they tend to do really well. I have heard and read reports that they actually jam the phone lines in their towns on Idol voting nights. I guess if you are from a bigger city young people probably have other things to do than watch TV and vote for Canadian Idol, but in the hick, cheering for a home town hero is a social event. That must be what is going on. There is also a trend to weed out contestants from certain places. The "Toronto" contestants don't usually do that well either, probably because the Toronto viewers may not vote as much, or they don't rally around their 'home town' singer, but rather vote for the better performer.

Quebec singers fare the worst in the show. I know that last year, Ava, from Gatineau QC won, but I would call her a 'soft q" Quebecker. She is technically from the suburbs of Ottawa. That's the city she auditioned from. When the other Ottawa area contestants were gone, she was the Ottawa local hero and they all voted for her. That, and the fact she was one of the best singers Canadian Idol had as of then produced. Had the girl been Quebecoise from Montreal, or worse yet for her, a francophone region in the east of Quebec, forget it. No one from her home town would vote for her because they don't watch English language CTV, if they even get the channel at all without cable. She probably would not have even auditioned, opting instead for the hugely popular Star Académie. http://staracademie.ca/ That's where all the best Quebecois singing talent goes. I think a number of the top contestants on Star Académie would have the talent to win American Idol, let alone the Canadian version. I also watch Star Académie, but it's not as fun as Idol. The show is longer, more drawn out, more variety focused, while the Idol concept is more MTV, flashy, and quick. The voting people out and game show aspect is played up more, generating excitement.

Anyway, writing this blog has proved useful as an outlet where I can vent my indignation at the voters of Idol for the stupid voting decision they made this week. I await the media reaction and fallout from this.

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