My Wet Coast Life

If you're reading this and you're in Canada, you probably by now have heard of Usage Based Billing, aka UBB. Some of you might have thought it was the news for that week and moved on. Others like me are worried what UBB can mean for me and Canadians in general, especially the bank account and budget.

For those not quite up to speed on UBB, here's a quick 411 to get you up to speed. Recently, the CRTC approve large Internet Service Providers (ISP) to be able to impose a low download bandwidth cap and then charge you a per gigabyte(GB) charge for going over that amount. They want the cap as low as 25 GB/month downloaded and then charge between $1-$5/GB if you go over depending on your plan.

Now for a lot of Internet users, they are not aware of bandwidth usage and in some cases how the Internet works "behind the scenes". As long as the web page loads quickly or the YouTube video streams, they are happy. What they may not realize, everything you see on your screen was downloaded to your computer before it could be viewed, including this blog article. Most sites are optimized and files kept small and cached to save your PC from re-downloading it if you visit the site again. All of this to ensure quick loading but it all adds up over time. For some people, they set their browser to clear its cache when it closes, if so, they're downloading each and every time they fire up the browser.

If you use services like Netflix, an average HD movie is around 3.5GB in size. Now over a given month, say you watched 10 movies, you would have used approximately 35GB of bandwidth which would be 10GB over the recommended alloted bandwidth of 25GB they want to give for the cheapest service. Now assume they are charging $2 per GB overage charge, that just costs you an extra $20 that month. Keep in mind, this doesn't include anything else you are doing online like checking email, chatting, Skype calling, streaming radio or even Facebooking. Are you an online gamer? That could use up some decent bandwidth based on how much you play. By the way, those updates for your software and operating system, that's using bandwidth too. Hmmmm....suddenly, 25GB doesn't sound so much. That's under 1GB/day. Got a smart phone? May not be in your best interest anymore to switch to your WiFi instead of 3G when at home as your 3G data rate could be cheaper now.

So you can easily see, some users under UBB can easily go over their alloted bandwidth depending on what package they have and could easily receive a surprisingly high bill. Most people on Shaw or Telus have/had around 60GB/month prior to UBB which is better than the proposed 25GB Ontario ISP's have under UBB. If you went over in the past, you would get a warning and possibly disconnected if a repeat offender. Now you will just get a larger bill. One thing to point out, currently, No ISP has offered a discount or refund for users who use under the allotted bandwidth. So technically, they are being punished for the select few who do abuse the system.

Where the battle lies is the justification of the high overage charges when it has been stated it costs hundreds of times less. There are claims it only costs ISP's a couple cents/GB but they are charging customers between $1-$5+ overage fees. Rocky Gaudrault, president of ISP Teksavvy, was quoted last May when this first started saying "The rates are absolutely atrocious. How the hell are we doing above one dollar for extra usage? It’s in the thousands of multiples beyond what the costs are."

Tony Werner, the chief technical officer for Comcast Cable further confirmed to his investors "The cost of the equipment necessary to expand network capacity is decreasing all the time as technology improves. Werner even told investors at that same meeting that it only costs an average of $6.85 per home to DOUBLE the bandwidth capacity of an entire neighborhood, and that the equipment necessary to provide 50Mbps costs less than what it paid for the 6Mbps equipment."

So we have some ISP executives saying the charges are too high but the CRTC cannot regulate the amount, they only approved the ability for ISPs to charge UBB. The CRTC even states under paragraph 9 that they do not control the rates. "The Commission notes that carriers’ retail UBB rates are market-based and are not subject to prior Commission approval – that is, they are forborne from regulation.". How can they approve the right for ISPs to charge without regulating it to avoid it getting out of hand?

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Losing a friend or family member is never a joyful experience. Losing them to a preventable accident is even worse. It has taken me awhile just to wrap my head around the facts that have arisen in regards to my friend Jayna Haddock being killed by a drunk driver on April 12, 2008 and what i have learned in the last week or so.

I grew up with Jayna living down the road in what i would describe as a small micro-community where there is one main road in and most of the neighbors know each other and all the kids are welcome at each other's house. This almost guaranteed anyone in that area always had someone around the same age to play with. Even though most of us from that time frame have grown up, moved out, married and lost some contact, we all still try to meet when we can to reminisce about those days and the fun we had. Sadly, we have had one less friend that can join us for the last 2 years.

Up to this point, I've tried to avoid learning more about the trial and events of that night. I sum it up to my friend was killed by a drunk driver, they caught the guy but he still denies it, trial will be awhile but he should be found guilty. So i continued on in life and every so often remember Jayna and then kick myself again because she died 2 weeks before we had planned to meet up. 2 weeks. 1 pay check. We had not spoken in over 10 years due to me traveling and moving to different cities. We recently started chatting again thanks to Facebook (it does do some good every-so-often). I even wrote about it, 1 year after Jayna died, when British Columbia first announced the new proposed, now implemented, drinking and driving laws, still not knowing anything more at that time other than my friend was killed by a drunk driver.

Well, this all changed this week for me as he was just sentenced. 2 and a half years after it happened, I decided now I wanted to know more and was shocked at to what i found. Just shocked. So many emotions come back to mind and a lot tend to head towards anger, rage and frustration as well as sadness. Some of this info was available earlier but to me, this was new and changed everything for me. For those that want to stay in the little bubble like I did, stop reading now.

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I woke up this morning to find out another large earthquake has struck somewhere on terra firma. The unlucky recipients today are the citizens of Turkey. A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Eastern Turkey Monday morning. So you are probably thinking what's the big deal? Earthquakes happen all the time and as long as it is not in my back yards, i will be sublime about it. Now are you sure about that?

Living on the wet coast, we live in the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is a 40,000km horseshoe ringed shape area, in the basin of a Pacific Ocean, where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

We experience earthquakes all the time in this area, but most tend to be small enough that they are rarely felt. But since 2010 began, at least in my opinion, I have noticed we have been seeing much larger quakes and more frequent and most of them were around the Ring of Fire. All you need to do is check out the U.S. Geological Survey's website showing worldwide earthquakes with magnitude of 4.5+ in the last 7 days to see there have been a few...

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After writing about the hateful Gil LeBreton's article comparing us to Nazi Germany, i assumed it would be the last attack i would hear or read for awhile against Canadian Pride. I guess with the Olympic's "modified" version of our anthem at the openning and closing ceremonies has given our own government an idea. Our "wonderful" Conservatives, 3 days after the Olympics ended and after proroguing Government for a second year in a row, announced in the throne speech it will ask Parliament to examine the original wording of the Canadian anthem. They want to change O'Canada lyrics. What? Come on....do they have nothing better to do than waste tax payers dollars to change our anthem? It was proclaimed Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980, 100 years after it was first sung on June 24, 1880. Now for those unfamiliar with the lyrics and to show the current version adopted pursuant to the National Anthem Act in 1980, it reads as follows:

"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

The basis for the change is the phrase "In all thy sons command" has some women calling for a gender-neutral version. Now wasting our tax dollars, they will create a parliamentary committee to study whether the phrase "In all thy sons command" should be changed to "Thou dost in us command", which the Prime Minister’s Office says is the wording from the original version, which they are at least correct on that.

Now I understand it was the original wording, BUT you need to keep in mind the version on which the official English lyrics are based on was written in 1908 by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir. Key word is BASED ON. By the way, the French lyrics remain untouched to this day. Even Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff doesn’t object to a more "gender-sensitive" anthem, but said the government should take serious steps to improve the status of women. WOW, Liberals are agreeing with the Conservatives. Well if that is the case, why not join forces and spend the money where it will be useful and have a much larger visible and beneficial impact? Can we say health care? what about education?

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It only takes a few to ruin it for the rest and it looks like Gil LeBreton and the editors of McClatchy Newspapers in the USA wants to take the gold for ignorance. My friend passed on an article titled "It was a Canadian party, and Canada sure enjoyed itself". After seeing the title, HELL YEAH! why wouldn't we enjoy ourselves. But then i started reading the article and shortly there after, my blood was starting to boil. Why? This poor excuse for a reporter references our Canadian maple leaf to the Swastika and compared our hosting of the Olympics and displays of national pride to Berlin hosting them in 1936.

Seriously, WTF?

To compare Canada, of all countries, to the Nazi's is just appalling. As a reporter, you should be able to present the story without needing to compare people to the Nazi's when it comes to celebrating and national pride. This could even appear as hate literature using the Olympics to disguise it. Plus it doesn't say much for the morals of any of the editors that reviewed and allowed this article to be published. With so many "good" stories that were not reported as Gil so eloquently points out, you think this article is good reporting and would make up for it?? And for McClatchy Newspapers, by publishing this story and syndicating it, you and all your syndicates endorse this piece of hate literature. Sorry, but shame on you!

How quickly you forgot all the American flags flying from US houses all the time and supporting your troops overseas. I went down to Seattle a couple months ago and flags were everywhere, without even an event happening. Should i relate then to your flag waving, pride showing fellow country men as Nazis? When you hosted the Atlanta and Utah Olympics, the media coverage of American events was so one sided. Did we complain, maybe. Were you compared to Nazis? doubt it.

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