I grew up in a world where waiters and waitresses received a gratuity for good service.  Provide good service and you’d usually get ten or fifteen percent as a show of appreciation.  Provide poor service and you were lucky to get anything.  Display some attitude and you’d soon figure out that the penny is so […]

It is obvious that our schools are in crisis.  I meet college graduates who are utterly incapable of writing a grammatically correct paragraph.  Some of it is so bad that it fails to convey any meaning other than that the author can’t write. Those responsible for education appear blissfully unaware that the vast majority of their […]

They’ve added a new sport to the Commonwealth Games: Internet lunacy. Until recently, Australia was clearly in the lead with ‘Clean Feed’, the program that forces ISPs to censor Web sites included on Government blacklists. But, according to CNET, the, “U.K. government is considering the mass surveillance and retention of all user communications on social-networking […]

The kids at Facebook have a problem on their hands.  It appears that, as unbelievable as it may seem, some users actually read the Terms of Use. The salient part reads, When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order […]

Some inventions are amazing and iconic because of their tremendous contribution to humanity. The steam engine revolutionized transportation. Penicillin cured the previously incurable. The telephone forever changed how we communicate. But other inventions are amazing and iconic because of their stupidity. The Ford Edsel was one of the biggest failures in the history of American […]

Acting is a brutal business. There are hundreds or thousands of aspiring actors waiting on tables to survive while pursuing their dream. That’s Hollywood and that’s the American dream.  If you work hard enough, you have a chance. Canada takes a different approach. Rather than let market forces prevail and cancel the shows that wouldn’t […]

I’ve stayed at Hilton Hotels on occasion over the past few decades and I use one of their loyalty cards because I’m willing to put up with their occasional mail about my account in exchange for an occasional free room.  I opted for email because a simple rule can automatically delete it as soon as […]

I’m a huge fan of Larry Seltzer and I follow his articles on eWeek.com religiously. Seltzer recently wrote in response to a Washington Post story titled, ‘Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages‘ and he quoted the salient part: “No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard […]

A Carleton University student has been charged with the criminal offenses of “Mischief to a computer and criminal use of data.” The charges came after he allegedly broke into Carleton’s computer system and grabbed confidential information about 32 students. He then reportedly used the information to show Carleton’s administration how insecure their computer system is. […]