July 2008 Web-Tech News on VanRamblings

July 6, 2008Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Have you ever tried to visit a web page only to get the 404 error or another message, even though the site was working just fine an hour ago?
Down for everyone or just me does one thing. Type an URL into the site, and you’ll find out if the whole world is seeing what you’re seeing. Yep, it’s easy to determine if if that web site you’re trying to reach is actually down, or if your busted-up computer or network filters is the problem.

So much for the benign reputation of Google. A report in the New York Times Saturday, July 5th, suggests that not all is well with the search engine behemoth. Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, recently told Google staff that he had no sympathy for the parents who were upset by a 75% increase in Google day care fees — to a whopping $57,000 a year! — and, further, that he was “tired of ‘Googlers’ who felt entitled to perks like ‘bottled water and M&Ms’.”
That’s what we love in our billionaire corporate entrepreneurs — a kind heart, an ability to relate to the concerns of line staff, and the milk of human kindness. Whoa, Mr. Brin, just what’s up at Google? Fifty-seven thousand dollars in annual daycare fees? Way to value your staff, Google.

A few weeks back, corporate anti-virus company, AVG, notified subscribers that their free AVG 7.5 workhorse would become defunct June 1st (the company later changed that date to June 25), although even as of this writing AVG 7.5 (the free version) seems to be performing well, as the company continues to provide virus definition updates to the supposedly defunct software.
Soon after AVG made the new version announcement word began to filter across the Internet that the free version of AVG 8.0 would work to full capacity for only 30 days, after which the e-mail scanning facility would become defunct, requiring subscribers to update to AVG 8 PRO.
AVG recently published an announcement that …

Contrary to rumours circulating on the Internet, AVG Free 8.0 does not include any “trial” or “time-out” functionality. Every option provided in the program is fully functional for the life of the product.

So, for those who loves them some free AVG, you can safely download the fully functional, and absolutely free, 8.0.1 version of AVG anti-virus here.

Microsoft has released Windows XP Service Pack 3 currently rolling out to customers across the globe. Online tech company, CNET, warns users to hold off on downloading the massive Windows XP hotfix update until the ‘bugs’ have been worked out.
To prevent Windows XP from automatically installing, you can surf to this site, following the directions to block the installation of the service pack.
VanRamblings brings you this announcement in the hopes of preventing potential havoc on your PC. We advise you to wait until 2009 to download Windows XP SP3, when Microsoft will make the update mandatory.

Cheap Eats: Lan’s Restaurant in Vancouver (Vietnamese)

July 4, 2008Cheap EatsRaymond Tomlin

Lan’s Restaurant, 1481 West Broadway, Vancouver

Today, VanRamblings débuts a new category on our site, “Cheap Eats,” a guide to those restaurants in town which offer fine cuisine at an affordable price (which is to say, under $10 per person, for a quite extraordinary meal). In this first post, we’ll highlight Lan’s Restaurant.
In Vancouver, we are fortunate to be gifted with a kaleidoscopic smorgasbord of restaurants, with cuisines ranging from Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, and south Asian fare of every description, to middle Eastern and every other category of ethnic cuisine, to the tried-and-true heart attacks specials offered by the greasy diners of our youth (something we have difficulty resisting from time to time).

Although Lan’s offers traditional Vietnamese cuisine — ranging from Lemon Grass Boneless Chicken Steak to King Crab in Curry Sauce, and Quail in Lemon Grass Sauce, not to mention a panoply of appetizer, hot pot, noodle and rice dishes — for those on a budget, the real savings at Lan’s occurs when the diner sets aside the main menu for the Special Combinations sheet that comes tucked inside the menu booklet that is delivered to the table.
For $7.50, diners are offered a 5-course meal of succulent Vietnamese fare.
Those $7.50 special combination dinners include …

Combination A: corn chowder or sweet and sour soup, a Vietnamese salad, pork brochette, Vietnamese roll dip, and Vietnamese steam rolls
Combination C: the soup of the day, Vietnamese salad, curry vegetable, lemon grass chicken steak, and steamed rice or Vietnamese chow mein
Combination H, a veggie combo: soup of the day, Vietnamese salad, vegetable with oyster, vegetarian roll dip, and vegetarian chow mein

Lan’s Restaurant simply cannot be beat. The restaurant’s atmosphere is homey, nicely appointed and welcoming, the tea is warming, the service is friendly and the food always first rate. For $7.50 (plus tax and tip), Lan’s Restaurant is one Cheap Eats restaurant you should check out the next time your pocketbook is lean, and hunger strikes. You’ll be glad you did.
Lan’s Restaurant, 1481 West Broadway, just east of Granville Street.
Open 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Tuesday thru Saturday. Phone: 604-738-2338.

Vancouver Sun Civic Affairs Reporter Frances Bula Resigns Her Post

July 2, 2008BC Politics, Media, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

Frances Bula, the Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter since 1994, abruptly announced her resignation from the newspaper today.
Dear all of my blog-readers,
This will be my last post on this Vancouver Sun blog, as I have resigned from the paper.
As Vancouver-based blogger Rob Cottingham states in his farewell tribute to Ms. Bula today, “Her blog post makes it clear that she thoroughly understands blogging – which makes losing her voice at the Sun doubly painful.” Another Vancouver blogger, Bill Tieleman, weighs in on Ms. Bula’s departure from the Sun, on Sean Holman’s Public Eye Online, writing …

This is indeed bad news for all of us who either report on municipal politics, follow them or are active in local government.
Frances Bula has done an outstanding job for many years and amazingly maintained her sense of humour despite sitting through endless rounds of pointless Vancouver city council meetings and much more.
Good luck to Frances wherever she goes – she will have many fans who will follow.

The Pivot Legal Society’s David Eby writes on his blog, “For her to leave the Sun is, well … shocking.”
In what is shaping up to be the most important Vancouver civic election in almost a half century, Ms. Bula’s resignation from the Sun, and rumoured movement to Vancouver Magazine — with its three month advance deadline, and consequent lack of reportorial immediacy — represents the loss of a critical voice, at a critical juncture, on Vancouver’s civic scene.
Unless Ms. Bula commences with her new blog (which she promises) by early autumn, Vancouver citizens will find them far less informed on the machinations of the fall civic election than otherwise would be the case.
We are all the lesser for Ms. Bula’s departure from the daily journalistic rigours of reporting on the often tempestuous Vancouver civic scene.

Amy Castle, You’re My Honeybunch (The Cuppycake Song)

July 1, 2008DiversionsRaymond Tomlin

And here’s the history of the song (first recorded in her parents’ home studio in 1994), and an update on Amy Castle, the singer of the song.
Lyrics and music of the song written by Judianna Castle, Amy’s mom.